Fiji - Fishermen doing it tough

Local fishing export companies will take a long time to be able to compete with other nations who are fishing our oceans.
Fiji fishing export company Hangton director Jitendra Mohan says there is campaign underway for pacific fishing companies to claim more from the Pacific $2 billion fishing industry.
But Mohan says this is highly unlikely because of the lack of capacity and the size of most export fishing companies in the Pacific.
“Its not just about catching fish and exporting and I don’t think any company in the pacific has the capacity to grow that big because we simply don’t have the market access and also we don’t have the technical ability that most of these foreign fishing companies have. We’re not ready for that just yet.”
A concerted effort led by the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) called the DEVFISH Project is currently underway to ensure that more pacific fishing export companies do earn more from their own oceans and tuna.
“Devfish is just a good start but definitely we’re a long way away from competing with these foreign owned fisheries companies..”
Pacific Island companies and governments earn only $600million annually from the $2 billion worth of the tuna and fisheries industries.

Source: foodbizdaily.com

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