New PNG Tuna Plant Starts Operationff

Papua New Guinea’s second tuna loin plant was commissioned in Lae last week along with a new tuna cannery.

The K100 million (US$31.25 million) plant will be operated by Filipino-owned fishing concern Frabelle (PNG) Ltd.

The plant’s commissioning has been paved by the Frabelle’s signing of agreements with the State and the Morobe provincial government.

Employing an initial workforce of 600, the plant will process 40 tons of tuna per day and will gradually build up to 100 tons a day over 12 months.

The plant expects to produce about 10,000 units of canned tuna a day.

When production is at its peak over an 18-month period, it would process 120 tons a day and employ 2,500 people, mostly women, who will be working round-the-clock in two shifts.

Frabelle’s senior vice president Augusto Natividad signed the final documents of the fishing project with Governor General Sir Paulius Matane, Acting Trade and Industry Secretary Alois Taberang and Morobe’s Deputy Governor Utika Siserta at the Government House in Konedobu, Port Moresby.

“We are looking at producing 10,000 pieces of canned tuna per day,” Mr Natividad said, adding that the plant will employ around 4,000 nationals and about six expatriates when fully operational.

Frabelle, which will use its fleet to catch and supply fish for the cannery, also intends to get tuna supplies from local fishermen. Mr. Natividad said the company had already spent around US$6 million.

Frabelle’s parent company, the Frabelle Fishing Corp, produces the “Isabella” canned sardines in its Manila cannery and hopes to export it to Papua New Guinea. However, Mr. Natividad said the product would be produced locally in three months time.

Frabelle’s general manager Alex Bernardino, said “patience” had been the key to coming this far, and would need more as it negotiates with government authorities to build its own wharf to bring in catch and to build a dry-dock in either Wewak or Vanimo.

He said the investment in the dry-dock facility would be “substantial” and preferred Wewak as the possible site because the first tuna loin factory operated by South Seas Tuna Co is already based there.

Mr. Bernadino said Frabelle would export its cooked tuna loins and canned tuna under the “Isabella” brand to European Union countries using the existing duty-free export arrangements.
 
It will also export cooked tuna loins to Japan because of the growing demand there.
The tuna canning factory will be the third fish cannery in the country, after the Besta mackerel canner in Lae and the RD Tuna Cannery Ltd in Madang.