Rich pickings for fishing industry as EU opens its markets to duty free tuna exports and new developments increase value-added production
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he
waters of Papua New Guinea are teeming with fish, including approximately
one fifth of the tuna stock of the entire Pacific fishery. Up to 10
percent of the global catch of the main market species of tuna is taken
within the PNG fisheries zone and the potential sustainable harvest
of tuna is estimated at around 250,000 tonnes a year.
Fishery
exports from PNG include fresh, frozen and canned tuna, prawns, lobster
and shark meat, and the potential exists for the fisheries industry
to make a huge contribution to the national economy, both in terms of
exports and domestic food supply. In 2002, the total value of fishery-related
exports rose by 20 percent to a record £34 million.
Chilled tuna is exported mainly to Australia and Japan, frozen tuna
to the Philippines, Japan and Taiwan, and canned tuna to the United
States and European markets.
A major breakthrough came when PNG was granted duty-free access to the huge tuna market of the European Union at an Asia Caribbean Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU) meeting last year.
Previously, duty-free access had been denied because the tuna were caught and processed by non-ACP and EU companies. PNG applied successfully to the EU for tuna caught in the waters of the archipelago to be treated as being of PNG origin, thus enabling its processed tuna to be exported to the EU duty free.
The scope for making fisheries a major component of the export drive in the wake of the ACP-EU decision is enormous, and is expected to boost export earnings from tuna to £40 million this year.
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| Fishery exports range from prawns to shark meat, but the most important is tuna, sold fresh, frozen or canned |
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Large-scale deepwater fishing is carried out by foreign fleets of purse seine vessels from China, Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines, with the bulk of the revenues of the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) coming from bilateral access agreements and interim agreements with locally-based foreign vessels.
Longline tuna fishing is restricted to Papua New Guineans and the NFA is keen to increase the size of the domestic fleet. Ten years ago, there were hardly any PNG-owned and operated tuna longline vessels. Since then the number in operation has increased significantly.
The high-value yellowfin and bigeye tuna they catch currently earn around K30 million (£5 million) per annum in the Japanese sashimi market, with potential for considerable growth. Domestic vessels have also been increasingly targeting shark.
As part of the government’s export-driven growth strategy, investment in onshore tuna processing is being strongly encouraged. The government wants to see as much as possible of the national catch processed before being sold abroad. Foreign and domestic access by purse seine vessels is increasingly linked to commitment to value added activities.
The government wants to see increasing national involvement in the industry and has been working to create a conducive environment for both foreign and local investors. “The challenge is to make PNG an equal partner in the fishing industry,” says a spokesman for the Ministry of Fisheries.
Consideration is being given to loan guarantee schemes for small fisheries projects and to ways of acquiring equity for provincial governments and other participants in larger projects.
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Molean Chapau, Managing Director of the NFA, believes that over the next 10 years PNG could become the tuna centre of the Pacific region. “We are moving towards it. We just need the right approach and support from the funding agencies.
“We want to attract the fishing nations that have vessels out in the region to get them to come here and either unload their catches or have their vessels serviced here,” he says. “We need to be able to attract them by providing incentives such as reduced fuel costs.
“The main emphasis will be on the ports at Manus and on Kavieng. We want to try to compete with some of the traditional ports in the Pacific like Guam and other places,” adds Mr Chapau.
Donor assistance has been provided for development of the sector by Australia, Japan, the European Union and the Asian Development Bank.
The volume of unprocessed tuna will decrease with the opening of new loining plants/canneries that will process tuna caught both within PNG’s waters and elsewhere in the Pacific.
A £11 million loining plant at Wewak, in East Sepik Province, a joint venture between FCF (Taiwan), the provincial government of East Sepik, Bank of South Pacific and Jaczon of the Netherlands, is expected to produce up to 200 tonnes of cooked tuna for export per day. The plant, whose operator is South Seas Tuna Corporation, is one of the biggest in the southern hemisphere. Its estimated contribution to the national economy is K100 million (£16 million) per year.
Duty-free access to EU market will generate exports and employment
Other new plants have been under construction at Lae, in Morobe Province, and in Madang, where RD Tuna of the Philippines has been operating PNG’s first cannery since 1997.
With donor support, new purpose-built longline wharves are being built for the delivery of the fish for processing and there are plans to develop a series of local fish markets.
The new wharves include complexes at Lombrum in Manus Province and Kavieng, in New Ireland Province. Lombrum is seen as a potential key transshipment port for fishing vessels operating in the western and Central Pacific Ocean, while Kavieng, already home to the National Fisheries College, is the location for a major new seafood processing facility, funded by the Australian government. Built to meet stringent European standards, the plant will operate both as a commercial entity, processing tuna and other fish species, and as a training facility.
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Further wharves are planned at Lae, Daru and Alotau, and an airport chiller facility has been under construction at Port Moresby.
The government is mindful of the need to protect such a valuable resource and monitoring, control and surveillance procedures have been tightened.
Since 1999, development of tuna fishing has been controlled under a National Tuna Fishery Management Plan, which is currently being revised. The Fisheries Ministry emphasises that every care is taken to ensure that PNG’s fish stocks are well managed and remain at a sustainable level.
“Thanks to our very productive waters and the resilience of the tuna themselves, present catches should continue to be sustainable and will continue to be closely monitored,” says the Ministry spokesman.
Coastal fisheries development projects aimed at benefiting rural coastal communities are being supported by the European Union and the Asian Development Bank. The projects involve funding of locally built vessels, and training in fishing, marketing and small business skills.
Aquaculture is also being promoted to increase the food supply, generate income and involve small rural communities in the economy, and has become a major activity in some coastal areas.
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