Tuna Industry In Asia Lucrative But Faces Many Issuesff
30 October 2007
Malaysia The Asian tuna industry is worth more than RM20 billion (USD 6 billion) but despite its lucrative potential, players face many issues faced by Asian tuna players, Malaysian International Tuna Port Sdn Bhd (MITP) chief executive director Datuk Annuar Zaini Binyamin said today.
These include the sustainability of tuna stock in the Indian and PacificOceans, volatile global fuel prices and its impact on tuna vessels, management of illegal fishing activities in Asia, food safety & sanitary requirements in Asia’s tuna exports and the imposition of trade barriers and quotas by western importers, he said.
â€It is estimated that the annual economic losses from Illegal, Unreported & Unrecorded (IUU) fishing activities in Asia-Pacific is over RM15 billion,†said Annuar Zaini when giving an Asian perspective of the industry at the inaugural 1st Worldwide Tuna Congress of Azores held in Portugal, which ended Sunday.
The event was co-organized by the National Association of the Fish Processing Industry of Spain (ANFACO) and the Portuguese Government, according to MITP in a statement.
Annuar Zaini said he strongly believes that these challenges can be overcome through mutually beneficial Euro-Asia trade agreements and IUU management initiatives, innovation of tuna products, as well as the development of better facilities and infrastructure in Asia’s strategically located fisheries ports to encourage larger commercial tuna vessels to land their catch at these facilities.
He noted that Malaysia was among the top prominent tuna landing hubs in Asia from the 1960s to 1980s but since then, it has lost this position to fisheries ports from neighboring countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore which have spurred the development of their fishing technology and tuna-landing infrastructure.
â€Today, pelagic tuna catches in Malaysia have been recorded at 55,000 to 64,000 metric tons annually in the last five years,†he said.
Since tuna in Malaysia is more of a by-catch than a primary fisheries source, Malaysia needs to rely on the development of better port facilities and infrastructure to capitalize on the lucrative tuna industry, he added.
Annuar Zaini also stressed on the need to facilitate better Euro-Asia and intra-Asia cooperation to resolve the issues and challenges faced by the Asian players as well as to develop the tuna industry in Asia & Europe effectively.
