“You Just Can’t Compete With Thailand”ff

John West Moves Production Away from Australia to Thailand  

Source: The Australian



Cans of tuna have been whizzing through the production line at Port Lincoln Tuna Processors for 38 years, but by June they will grind to a halt and end tuna canning in Australia.

As a seafood industry veteran of just over 30 years, factory operations manager Larry Vallance knows where to point the finger.

“You can’t compete against Asia,” he says as he surveys lines of John West tomato-and-onion-flavoured tuna flying past at 500 cans a minute. “You just can’t compete with Thailand.”

That’s where John West, owned by Idaho-based Simplot, is going. (John West Australia which is owned by Simplot is not to be confused with John West Europe, which is owned by MW Brand.)

There used to be five Australian canneries, but they have slowly closed or shifted focus -- just as Port Lincoln Tuna Processors will now that it has lost the John West contract.

The company, which has about 260 employees, the majority casual workers who come and go with the fishing seasons, recognised a long time ago that this day might come.

Fierce competition from Asia drove the company to branch out into packaging other products, such as baby food, instant pasta and gravy, a decision general manager Lea Traeger said had saved them.

“If we hadn’t diversified, yes, that would have been the end of us,” Ms Traeger said. “This has been on the board for several years; it was only a matter of time. Unfortunately people weren’t really aware that we were the only Australian cannery until it hit the newspapers that Simplot were leaving.”

The company will continue to can salmon, but it’s unclear what will happen to the smaller skipjack tuna the Port Lincoln boats pick up with their prized southern bluefin.

Started by a group of Croatian fishermen in the 1970s, Port Lincoln Tuna Processors is reluctant to define what impact the loss of tuna canning will have on its business, but remains hopeful that few jobs will be lost.

It is Port Lincoln’s biggest employer, and the town has already been hit hard by the 23 per cent quota cut announced for tuna last year.

“We don’t consider that we’ve shut down; it’s just the John West brand which is no longer here,” Mr Vallance said.

“I wouldn’t be sitting here if I weren’t optimistic.”