FOCUS ON: Papua New Guinea (PNG)ff

Papua New Guinea is a developing country in the Western Central Pacific region, which is one of the world’s richest tuna resources.

According to the presentation about PNG investment possibilities by Mr. Ivan Pomaleu, the Acting Managing Director of Investment Promotion Authority, the PNG tuna industry is the country’s largest fishery in quantity and economic terms. The main species which are caught by this WCPO (Western Central Pacific Ocean) nation are skipjack, yellowfin, albacore, a smaller quantity of bigeye and other species.

The usual catch within PNG waters that is landed locally is at the level from 100.000 M/T to 150.000 M/T a year, which is caught by vessels from many countries.

According to the National PNG Fishing Authority, there is a total of 186 tuna purse seiners currently fishing in PNG waters. Of these tuna vessels, 7 are owned by domestic companies, and 39 by locally based foreign fishing corporations.  The remainders are vessels flying the Taiwanese, Chinese, Korean, US, and Philippine flag.

Besides purse seiners, there are this year also 45 long liners active in the PNG EEZ, of which 26 target tuna, 9 go for sharks, and 10 vessels are small pump boats (which use handline fishing method).

Tuna is exported in a variety of forms. Chilled tuna from the tuna longline is delivered mainly to the Japanese market. Frozen tuna from the purse seine vessels is mainly processed locally, but also exported to Thailand, Australia, Philippines and other Asian tuna processing nations.

On the Island of Papua New Guinea there are currently 3 tuna factories active: one cannery in Madang and recently a second one on Lae. There is also a pre-cooked loining plant in Wewak. Besides that, there are several smaller exporters active of raw tuna loins – which are exported either fresh or frozen.

In 2006, PNG supplied to the EU market mainly canned tuna with 1.416.543 cartons which equaled a 3,21% share of total European canned tuna imports.  2006 was a bad year for PNG canned tuna exports since the country’s export volume fell by 31% from the 2005 level of 2.051.509 cases.

UK was the main destination for tuna in brine when Germany was the major target for tuna in oil shipments during last year.  63% or 892.939 cartons of the canned tuna from PNG were exported to Europe in brine.



During last year, Papua New Guinea increased its delivery of pre-cooked tuna loins to the EU. The rise was from 338M/T to 1.413 M/T and equaled a 1,71% share of the total EU imports for this item.  Italy was the only market which got the entire PNG volume of loins last year and which is consistent with the trend in the previous year.

PNG did not supply any fresh whole round tuna product or any frozen tuna to European states in 2006. Its position in terms of frozen raw loins was insignificant with a tiny amount of 9 M/T being exported during last year.

PNG EXPORTS TO THE USA

To the USA during 2006 PNG exported three tuna products: canned albacore in brine, frozen pre-cooked tuna loins and fresh chilled yellowfin by air.

The pre-cooked tuna loins volume was at the level of 2.306 M/T and it was the main tuna item delivered to the USA by PNG last year. Most probably this fish was shipped to the US owned canneries in American Samoa. The amount of these loins shipped rose from 1.379 M/T by 67% compared to the previous year.  With the 2006 exports PNG still only has about 5% of total volume of pre-cooked tuna loins exported to the USA.

According to the US statistics, American canners got from PNG more pre-cooked product than European processors.

The two tuna products that were supplied by PNG to the USA represent a minor quantity. One was canned albacore with 67 M/T, which was not delivered in the previous year at all.

The second small item, in terms of quantity, was fresh chilled yellowfin with 12 M/T in 2006.  In 2005 also only 15 M/T were airlifted from PNG to US customers,

 

Looking at these two big tuna markets USA and Europe, it is clear that the European market is of much more significance for PNG tuna industry than the USA. This mostly due to the fact that PNG canned tuna imports into the USA are slapped with a 12% duty, while in Europe entry is duty free.