The growing trend of high domestic rice consumption is slowly creating a loss in foreign exchange from imported rice as Papua New Guinea is trying to find ways to support more domestic production.

Although the Papua New Guinea Government  had developed and endorsed its National Rice Policy in 1998 aimed at developing and promoting subsistence domestic rice production by smallholders,  the country sepnds huge sums of money on importing rice.

The government is now promoting domestic production by imparting trainng to smallholder rice producers in order to counter the current loss in foreign exchange from imported rice.