Fisheries policy makers from the Parties to the Nauru Agreement — a group of eight island countries that control an ocean area that accounts for about 25 percent of all tuna caught globally — are meeting here in Majuro on Nov. 23-26 to discuss plans to dramatically increase fishing revenue by establishing linkages with industry to involve the islands in all aspect of the tuna trade, from fishing to marketing.
“We’re moving away from the old relationship with foreign flag states of just collecting license fees to looking at long-term linkages with industry,” said Transform Aqorau, director of the PNA office in Majuro.
Connecting with the tuna industry is a big part of this week’s meetings in Majuro.
American Samoa Gov. Togiola Tulafono, whose island hosts a key but financially troubled tuna cannery and another that was recently closed, will be the keynote speaker at the opening Thursday of the meeting of fisheries ministers from the PNA nations.
“A key item for the governor is how American Samoa can work with PNA nations in regards to fish processing,” said PNA office director Transform Aqorau this week in Majuro. American Samoa is “looking to a long-term partnership with PNA.”
To compete with Thailand-based canneries and tuna suppliers, which drive the industry, Aqorau said island nations need to integrate vessels with processing plants and marketing into Europe and North America. “We’re lucky to have Papua New Guinea on one side with canneries and access to the European Union,” Aqorau said.
“On the other side, American Samoa has canneries with access to the United States market. PNA is looking for long-term linkages with processing plants.” Without this, it will be impossible to compete with Thailand for market share, he said.
“Market access is the key,” said Don Xu, who manages the Pan Pacific Foods tuna processing plant in Majuro that employs 450 islanders. “Labor costs in Bangkok are much lower compared to the Pacific.” This means Thailand and the American Samoa canneries will only buy from the Majuro plant during peak periods of tuna demand.
Xu said the Majuro plant would like to regularly supply fish to canneries in American Samoa because shipping costs are half what it costs the plant to ship processed frozen tuna “loins” to the U.S. state of Georgia for canning.
Exporting processed fish from Majuro at competitive prices is a problem for Pan Pacific Foods, Xu said. “It’s a bottleneck,” he said. “Currently our freezer is full with 500 tons of process fish and 1,500 tons of fresh fish.”
Focusing on these industry needs is a big part of the PNA ministers’ agenda in Majuro this week because PNA is advocating for more joint ventures with foreign companies to provide employment opportunities in the islands.
Since 2008, the PNA nations — Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu — have been driving significant changes in management of the industry by requiring 100 percent independent observer coverage of all purse seine fishing boats, closing off high seas “pockets” located in between the zones controlled by PNA countries, and restricting use of “fish aggregation devices” to cut fish catches. In January, PNA will attempt to halt fishing in a high seas area the size of the continental United States and implement a new licensing scheme for longline fishing boats that target endangered bigeye and yellowfin tuna for the sashimi markets.
But PNA’s continued success depends on the eight countries maintaining unity in the face of a multi-billion dollar industry that has generally not supported conservation plans until PNA forced the issue. “We have to work together,” Aqorau said. One problem is that fishing nations attempt to play off one island against another when it comes to negotiating fishing access agreements, he said.
To combat this, “we need to share more information with each other,” Aqorau said. “We need to be more frank with each other about our licensing agreements.” Unity of the eight countries, whose populations range from a mere 10,000 in Tuvalu to six million in Papua New Guinea, has allowed PNA to stand up to distant water fishing nations, he said.
Now it’s time for stepping up the islands’ engagement with the industry, Aqorau said. This week’s meeting will see presentations from major tuna suppliers such as Tri-Marine International, the world’s largest supplier of tuna that operates a tuna processing plant in the Solomon Islands and recently purchased the former Chicken of the Sea tuna cannery in American Samoa. “They are an important player in the region,” said Aqorau.
The problem, however, is that there are far too many boats fishing in the region, which threatens tuna stocks in the long-term and keeps prices low.
“We have to get rid of some boats,” said Aqorau. “We must create scarcity by enforcing hard limits on fishing.”
