More Fiji
pp. 53-55 · Read in the full issue
fish for export
The Pacific Fishing Co, of Levuka, Fiji, expects to export about 99.5% of its total production in 1977. The company is hoping to process 2,300 tons of raw skipjack tuna netted by the
Ika Corporation ships Tui
Niwasaliwa, Hatsutori Maru No 5 and Hatsutori Maru.
About 40 Taiwanese and Korean
longline fishing ships on charter are
expected to add 7,000 tons of albacore and yellow fin tuna to the catch. The company opened a $500,000 cannery at Levuka last August. It is looking for an export market in Japan, but Japan will first have to lift its import duty on fish. The Fiji Government has been asked to approach the Japanese Government and seek a removal of the duty.
The development of the pineapple plantations on Mangaia and Atiu was earlier seen as a supply source which would sustain the operations of Island Foods Ltd, but again, because of a number of factors the quantity of fruit predicted has not been matched by actual production.
And given the best will in the world by the outer islands’ planters, the pineapple trade is very much at the mercy of the seas that separate the plantations from the cannery by about 150 miles of open sea. The availability of suitable vessels for the trade is one of the Cook Islands principal causes for concern.
A word of warning was given in March last year when the local director Mr George Keenan, said in the Cook Islands News, “After pro mising increases during the first few years after Island Foods’ estab lishment in 1961, citrus production has been unpredictable and disap pointing, with an adverse effect on the company’s profitability.”
Mr Keenan also highlighted the decline in the earlier frequency of outer islands shipping services, “with adverse effects on fruit quality and receipts”.
Various alternatives have been put forward on Rarotonga. Perhaps the government could take over the processing of fruit; perhaps another company could be induced to take over the operations; perhaps it might be better to establish two small canneries on Mangaia and Atiu to process the pineapples on site, and then to use the vessels on the Auckland-Cook Islands route to uplift the processed fruit.
Whatever the outcome, the plight of the processing plant on Rarotonga has very serious im plications for the Cook Islands. To how great an extent should the emphasis on agricultural production be redirected towards high profit/high-risk cash crops?
The whole position of shipping
services in the Cook Islands is in a most precarious state. What will be the effect upon the Cook Islands as a whole if a large part of the present trade is to be curtailed?
Towards the end of February, the Premier, Sir Albert Henry, who was on a visit to New Zealand, said in Auckland, with respect to the com pany’s threat to quit, that the Cook Islands Government would prob ably buy out the company. Three Australian and NZ companies were ready to take over the industry and once the Cooks became a full mem ber of the Asian Development Bank in May a loan of around $2 million would be available.
He added that he believed the processing operation had helped the company and New Zealand more than it had the Cook Islands. The price paid to the growers had re mained about 3c for 454 gm of oranges for nearly two decades while the price of orange juice for the consumer had soared.
Sir Albert also pointed out that there was a lack of diversity of the citrus plant. It extracted the citrus juice while neglecting other fruits such as papaw, mangoes, guava and tomato.