TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT DIMENSIONS ON FRESH FISH SECTOR IN SAMOA

Outline  Background information  Quality Control Programmes  Seafood Export Industry  Problems in the Fresh Fish Sector  Solutions

Background Information  Offshore commercial fisheries (dominated by the tuna longline industry) are Samoa’s largest export earner.  Markets: American Samoa (Frozen fish), USA, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand (Fresh Fish)  2001: exports increased by 14% to 5,150 tonnes overall  937 tonnes of fresh chilled fish of overall 5150 tonnes were exported to developing markets  2000: Over 104 tonnes of tuna from Samoa were rejected by American Samoa resulting in a significant loss in overseas revenue  This led to the development and implementation of food safety and quality control programmes

Quality Control Programmes  HACCP – Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point regulations to strengthen health and safety requirements  Each company designs own HACCP plan to be approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries  Development and Implementation of national seafood safety policies and procedures  Seafood safety management system –Seafood safety council –Seafood safety verification body –Seafood export industry

Seafood Export Industry  Fish from Samoa are either exported frozen or fresh chilled to overseas markets.  Table 1: Estimated amount of fish exports and rejects since 1996  Since the inception of the seafood safety verification system in January 2003 a marked improvement was observed in each processing facility in applying seafood safety programmes.

Table 1: Estimated Amount of Fish Exports and Rejects Since Tonnage exported (metric tonne) Tonnage rejected (metric tonne) Value (tala) 31,61433,11021,80613,645

Problems in the Fresh Fish Sector  Lack of facilities for testing fish for acceptable mercury level;  Lack of knowledge by the fishermen in fish handling;  Isolation from overseas markets;  Restricted air freight capacity;  Lack of capacity to implement safety measures required by overseas markets

 Low capacity to identify issues related to health;  Climatic changes for e.g El Nino;  Biological life span of fish which determines volume of export;  Smallest EEZ;  Over-harvest of fish;

Solutions  Development of a seafood safety management system encompassing international requirements;  Establish appropriate infrastructure, facilities and laboratories;  Train local fishermen and staff in implementing safety measures;  Fishing license is provided to local and domestic fisheries;