New Caledonia's

Assembly Approves

Jap Tuna Plan

Approval has finally been

given for a company composed of Japanese and local interests to build a plant for the treatment and freezing of tuna in New Caledonia.

THE company, Societe I’Ocean, is formed by the Japanese com pany, Taiyo Gyogyo, and a New Caledonian group headed by Mr.

Andre Castex.

New Caledonia’s Territorial As sembly approved the statutes of the company in an extraordinary session convened in August. Mr. Castex had first submitted the statutes for approval in 1959.

The Assembly’s decision was made after hearing a favourable report from a special committee which went to Santo, New Hebrides, recently to study the agreement made there several years ago between Japanese tuna interests and a local company.

Societe I’Ocean’s plant will be built on a bay of Noumea Harbour, near Ducos Peninsula. It will have a capacity of 1,200 tons. The agree ment with the company calls for its completion in two years.

Five years from the signing of the agreement, the capacity of the plant is to be increased to 2,000 tons, and the plant is to be completely finished by then.

Refrigeration Ship

During the first two years, the re frigeration vessel Eiyo Maru will be anchored in the bay to freeze and process tuna caught by 20 Japanese trawlers operating off New Caledonia.

If a fish canning factory opens in Noumea operated by local capital, and if local fishermen cannot satisfy its requirements, Societe I’Ocean has agreed to supply fish for canning at the price for fish exported to Japan.

Societe I’Ocean will pay a tax of 260 francs (26/-) a ton on all fish ex ported to Japan during the first three years. The tax will then rise to 425 francs (42/6).

Societe I'Ocean has asked that no Customs duty be levied on the Eiyo Maru during her two years’ stay in Noumea. This request is to be studied The Eiyo Maru arrived in Noumea in mid-August and began receiving tuna from trawlers operating in local waters.