Niue Starts Fresh Tuna Exports To Japanff

Fiji and Niue have formalized their first bilateral air services agreement. Niue is an island in the South Pacific Ocean, located east of Tonga. Niue has only about 2,100 inhabitants.

Under the agreement, Niue will transport its fish, such as fresh tuna, and reef fish destined for markets in Japan through Fiji. Niue has gone into partnership with a New Zealand company, Reef Group of companies to process fish and transport it through Fiji for overseas markets.

Part of this partnership was the construction of a state of the art fish processing plant on the islands and a 39-seater plane to transport fish for exports to Japan.

Fiji’s foreign affairs minister said the air services agreement would open up a lot of opportunities for the small island nation.

“For us in Fiji, this opens up further commercial negotiations with Niue on a designated carrier to service the Niue/Fiji route. Our own domestic carrier, Air Fiji has the capacity to service these small island nations with small aircraft. But this will be a decision of the Niuean government to give the landing rights to a designated airline.” Mr. Tavola said.

The initial route for the new airline, Reef Air, will be Niue/Nadi return. The airline is expected to begin services next month.