April 12, 2011
 

Fijian tuna shipment to arrive at EU in May

 

 

After getting the final approval from the EU, Fiji hopes to ship its first consignment of tuna to the EU in the following month.

 

Golden Ocean Fish Ltd and Solander (Pacific) Ltd are the two companies which have complied with the EU's requirements, according to head of the Health Ministry Food Unit, Jope Tamani.

 

Tamani's Food Unit is responsible for getting a litany of fish exporting firms to supply tuna to European markets. He said the list consists of the plants visited by food inspectors in September 2010.

 

"The list has been forwarded to the arm of the EU that looks after food safety and the approval and establishment of these things," he said.

 

"That had been done about four weeks ago and it will take them another four weeks to send the approved list. I have been in contact with them since then and the list will be ready by next week," Tamani added.

 

Solander and Golden Ocean have both invested a lot to boost their quality and meet EU requirements.

 

"Solander is a Fiji company and they are the ones who invested in their vessels. When all the others played the waiting game, Solander improved," he said.

 

Four of Solander's vessels are approved, Tamani confirmed, and the company is now working to get its other vessels approved as well.

 

Golden Ocean has two separate facilities in Rokobili and Walu Bay. The former was built specifically to meet EU standards at a cost of US$12 million and the firm also improved its old processing plant and three of its fishing boats, he said.

 

"Everybody was given equal opportunity to comply with the requirements and some of them did while others did not," he continued. "We were even approached by some companies about not inviting the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) officers because they knew they were not going to make it. Fiji Fish was one of them."

 

Fiji Fish argued that it had not received the complete list of factors to address during the improvement process.

 

Meanwhile, Indonesian fishing firm, Gilontas Ocean Company, which is already setting up operations in Fiji, is expected to augment the prospects of rural and marine-based communities in the country, as the fisheries industry is vital to Fiji's economy and particularly its tuna sector, said Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama.

 

Gilontas was founded 35 years ago and focuses on harvesting, processing and marketing fish. The company respects and adheres to conserving stocks and protecting the environment and abides by EU standards, according to the Ministry of Information.