Statistics provided by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, obtained through export market channels, revealed that while the export value of Fiji’s beche-de-mer stood at $9 million, its consumer value totaled $45 million.
Northern senior fisheries officer Gerald Billings also revealed to The Fiji Times that Vanua Levu alone contributed 50 percent of the sea slug stock and earned some $4.5 million.
And he said this indicated the big number of people involved in this business in the north.
A Fiji chain map of beche-de-mer obtained by this newspaper showed that the north harvested 50 percent of the lucrative sea cucumber export commodity, followed by the southern Lau group at 30 percent, and fishermen from central Viti Levu and those from the Mamanuca and Yasawa groups harvested 10 percent each.
“The purchasing power of the Chinese is growing fast. Demand for sea cucumber products as food items, for the preparation of cosmetic and traditional medicinal products is growing,” Billings said.
“Information we have gathered shows that most sea cucumber fisheries in the South Pacific, and Fiji is of no exception, are now bust, overfished,” Billings said. “Annual exports have declined at a very steady pace over the years,” he said.
Billings represented Fiji at the recent Asia-Pacific Tropical Sea Cucumber Symposium in Noumea in February earlier this year.
“One of the most scary findings from the report is that it shows our most high-value targeted species available in Fiji and the Pacific are gone, and the low-value species are now being targeted,” he said. “Our main concerns are depleted stocks that are remaining in our waters.”
He said this was worrying given that many in some areas in Fiji, particularly those in coastal areas, relied heavily on beche-de-mer trade for their livelihoods.
