Fishing venture with Chinese company will provide 60 new jobs and $7.2 million per year for local economy

On Friday afternoon I spoke with Casey Yu, Marketing Assistant for Leun Thai Fishing venture Ltd and Matthew Wang, Senior manager Production and Senior Fishery Engineer for China Southern Fishery (Shenzen) Co Ltd (CFSC), a subsidiary of Leun Thai.
Both companies are based in Shenzen, China.
Both Yu and Wang arrived in Rarotonga last Friday to begin negotiations with government officials and the private sector aimed at CFSC establishing an onshore facility at Rarotonga for the transshipment of frozen tuna.
The decision to establish the venture follows discussions by Company owner Mr Sam Chou with the Minister Teina Bishop during a visit by Mr Chou in March 2012.
Tuna will be offloaded at Rarotonga and blast frozen at a temperature of -60 degrees. This is to ensure retention of the tuna’s flavor and meet EU standards relating to product safety.
This venture will be in two parts with part one to start in June 2012 and part two early in 2013.
In phase 1, the company will be making a direct contribution to the local economy estimated at $1.5 million per year which includes license fees, port charges and taxes. The indirect contribution will be $3 million. This includes salaries, fuel and local provisions. The company will also look to employ 25 locals.
In phase 2, the direct contributions will increase to $2.5 million per year and the indirect contributions will increase to $5 million per year. Locally employee numbers will increase to 60.
Yu said locals would be trained as fish handlers and in offloading initially. Locals will work in the processing plant and the office. The company will provide training to ensure international standards will be met. It will be striving for EU accreditation in health and safety.
Yu said they are talking to various parties concerning facilities and stressed that the company will ensure there are benefits to locals.
The company’s decision to offload locally is to support the Cook Islands economical developments and shore side operations.
The company has informed government that it seeks a long term relationship with our government in local developments not limited to fishing but including fuel supply and black pearls cultivation.
Yu commented that exporting the frozen fish out of Rarotonga using the local container ships will ensure those vessels do not sail empty. It should also help to bring down costs to locals if the vessels sail full.
Yu told the Times their negotiations and discussions were progressing well. Discussions have been positive and have required much patience on the part of Yu and Wang as they are not too familiar working in a business environment where the pace is slow. Yu said he has found Telecom and banking services a bit slower than what he is used to.
On the issue of shark fins which has erupted in the media, Wang advised that the company has instructed all its vessels not to target sharks as tuna is the priority.

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