Cook Islands sourced tuna to be processed and labelled by Taiwan cannery
Taiwan – Minister of Marine Resources Teina Bishop has come away from a visit to Taiwan with an agreement by Yuh Yow fishing company to process some of the Cook Islands albacore through their Taiwan based cannery as Cook Islands Golden Tuna label.
“The idea is to return some of fish catches back to the Cook Islands but more importantly we are looking at developing a future niche market for our albacore as an export commodity” says Minister Bishop.
Cook Islands albacore is considered to be one of the premium fishes for canning and its white flesh is often mixed with skipjack tuna to enhance its value.
Presently around 5,000 metric tonnes of albacore are fished from the Cook Islands waters and processed by canneries in Pago Pago for markets in the U.S. None if little of this product ever finds its way back to the Cook Islands.
Some the labelled product will be sold locally in the Cook Islands as well as being exported to other destinations. The Minister will be initiating a public campaign and school competition to develop a marketing brand and logo.
Whilst in Taiwan the Minister updated the access agreement with the Yuh Yow fishing company that was signed in March 2011. Under the new 2011 regulations the larger fishing vessels which renewed their licenses are being charged the premium rate of $85,000 dollars per fishing license.
Last week the Yuh Yow company landed about 7 tonnes of fish into Rarotonga to be exported by airfreight to fresh fish markets in the U.S and Japan.
“I was also pleased to see that the Yuh Yow Ltd is following through with their commitment to process and export fish out of Rarotonga. This helps diversify our economy but also it is the tax payers who are providing the under write for this airfreight service and we need to maximise this opportunity” says Minster Bishop.
Part of the current Government strategy is to engage directly with key foreign partners to encourage investments in exports from our fishing grounds. “At the moment we have limited domestic capacity to develop these commodities” he says.
- MMR Media Release

Herald Issue 554 09 March
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- Briefs from PM’s media conference Tuesday
- Tourism Industry ponders $5 million draft strategy
- Norman George resigns from Cook Islands Party
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- Norman selfish says Prime Minister