Wednesday, Nov. 11, 10.03 a.m. ICT
Turkey fish farmer eyes VAP, US market
Turkey-based More Aquaculture specializes in seabream and seabass farming and its products are normally full loin or fillets, fresh and frozen. However, the company has diversified recently due to changing client demands.
Asli Kahramanoglu said one client in Poland supplies supermarkets and just asked for a second shipment of a value added product.
Packaged under the Polish company's brand, Wish Dish, the product is microwavable and oven safe seabass or seabream, which is frozen fresh and packaged in sauce, such as pesto.
"They are trying to get into the product into the supermarkets more and the feedback is good," she said.
The company currently exports 100 percent of its harvest to Europe, 60 percent to the United Kingdom. Its annual harvest capacity is 3,350 metric tons for both species each year.
More Aquaculture also hopes to break into the US market.
"We have a good customer in the US at the moment, we started with them with fresh air shipments and now are sending them frozen containers. It was the same way when we were entering the UK market. I think people started understanding the importance of how much more fresh frozen fish is over fresh fish," which loses quality when it travels whereas fresh frozen fish is frozen at peak quality, she said.
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Wednesday, Nov. 11, 9.49 a.m. ICT
More cats? new pet food factory
Thai processor Chotiwat Manufacturing Co. Ltd. looks to build a new pet food factory to diversify its product portfolio.
The 35-year-old family-owned company is in its second generation and plans to open the new factory in December or January, which will double its current pet food production.
"The cat population is increasing such as in Japan," said Kessara Manachamni, sales manager at the company. "Also, Europe and US have a big market for pet food."
Currently, its three factories produce 400 metric tons per day and its sales are about $340 million per year. Of this total, about 80 to 90 percent is tuna and of that tuna production, 10 percent is for pet food while the rest is for human consumption.
The dolphin-safe company was just approved for its SA000 certification last month after starting the process two years ago.
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Tuesday, Nov. 10, 4.45 p.m. ICT
Thai firm seeks to double tuna capacity
Panom Tasit, sales supervisor of Thai company SK Foods (SKF), looks forward to 2016 when its new factory will be completed for food processing.
The can and pouch tuna products SKF produces go to Japan, the EU, US, Canada and Australia. The tuna is sourced from mainly purse seine vessels in the Western Central Pacific Ocean.
"We are a 100 percent export company with 60 percent going to Japan," said Tasit.
The new factory will be three times the size of the current one and the company expects tuna capacity to double and "we're trying to find a new market for that."
However, to lessen the risk of not finding enough new markets to meet the new production level, SKF diversified the new factory production, which includes tuna, sardines, mackerel, chicken and more.
Despite this growth, the company still faces competition from foreign countries such as Ecuador and the Philippines because Thailand has a 24 percent import tax into Europe
"We're constantly looking for new markets," he said, such as Africa.
As for prices, SKF as it has longer contracts with Japan from 6 months to a year, "which helps keep the prices stable," said Tasit.
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Tuesday, Nov. 10, 3.01 p.m. ICT
Middle East steps up, US steps down
Asian Alliance International Co. Ltd. sells tuna to Europe, United States, middle East, Australia and Japan, but recently, "for human consumption, there's been growth in the middle East, US and Australia because it's difficult to export
to Europe due to the 24 percent import tax and the country's many regulations," said Managing Director Apichai Sriarunlucksana.
He added canned tuna is not a fancy product so "once the economy is not good, people tend to eat canned, but the US economy is getting well so people want more fresh food. It has a bad effect on tuna, it's not a fancy product."
Also, "in the US they're eating less tuna and turning to different proteins."
The company noticed increased importance in the middle Eastern market, he said.
Asian Alliance exported 10 to 20 percent of its products to the middle East but with fewer exports going into Europe as well as less US consumption, the Middle East has played a more important export market for the company.
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Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2.27 p.m. ICT
Thai tuna flattens as prices drop
A young Thai tuna processor, just eight years old, looks to diversify its product line in the face of a stagnant tuna market.
Apichai Sriarunlucksana, managing director of Asian Alliance International Co. Ltd., said he expects the Thai tuna industry to be flat for the next two years and if it diversifies into value added products or pet food, it will help the company sustain itself.
The new packer accounts for 4 percent of tuna production in Thailand, about 70 to 80 metric tons per day, for human and pet food
"We're doing more value added products because the commodity market is depressing," he said, adding pet food has potential but it "needs more know-how, more technical knowledge so we had to invest into R&D and quality control."
The company sells tuna to Europe, United States, middle East, Australia and Japan.
Sriarunlucksana said the price of tuna per metric ton dropped from $1,500 about 3 to 4 months ago down to $1,100 and "I think it will down more. The buyers they're all waiting, they're not buying. But I think the price will still go down some more."
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Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2.11 p.m. ICT
Maldives need more processing capacity
Maldives-based Mifco collects about 70 percent of the pole and line caught tuna in the Maldives.
The Maldives is also the only MSC-certified pole and line skipjack fishery in the world and Mifco's operations include freezing, canning and exports.
It also exports fresh tuna to Europe and the United States.
The community-based fisheries in the Maldives, however, run up against heavy competition from larger canneries in Thailand both because of economies of scale but also capacity on the Maldive islands.
"We plan to upgrade our cannery to 50 tons per day... our target for canned tuna production is 1 million cases per year," Adley Ismail, CEO at the company, told IntraFish. The upgrade will finish at the end of next month.
The company battles high price fluctuation in the tuna market. In 2013, they got about $2,500 per metric ton but recently, it's been about $1,400 per metric ton of tuna.
Also, at about $2 per tuna can in the US supermarket, Ismail said that should come out to about $3,000 per metric ton.
"Our fishermen do all the hard work." But because of capacity constraints in the Maldives, a good amount of tuna is exported to Thailand for processing.
"When product from small scale fisheries go to the larger cannery in Thailand, they control the price and the profits don't trickle down to the local fishermen."
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Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1.32 p.m. ICT
Tuna: value added over simple
Bangkok-based Sea Value imports raw material, such as sardine, mackerel, skipjack, yellowfin and albacore, and exports the finished product globally. Most, or 70 percent of its sourced raw material is skipjack tuna from the western Pacific ocean.
Last year, it exported to Asia and the United States 16 percent each, 15 percent to Europe, 12 percent to Africa and Oceania each, and 11 percent stays domestic. The rest goes to the middle East, South Africa, North and South
America. Of its production, 69 percent is human food and 15 percent is pet food.
For example, in the last two years, they've seen a jump in Thai curry tuna value added products to Japan, which the company shipped about 300 containers of this VAP to just Japan.
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Tuesday, Nov. 10, 11.34 a.m. ICT
Mark Berman: 'I have a problem with Greenpeace'
Mark Berman, director of Earth Island Institute's International Dolphin Safe Tuna Monitoring Program (IDSTMP), called out NGO Greenpeace over its recent campaign targeting singular companies in the tuna industry.
"This is not the official Earth Island Institute opinion. It's mine."
He added that Greenpeace started as an ally when Earth Island got involved in the dolphin-safe initiative in the last 80s. However, what Greenpeace is doing today, he does not agree with.
"I have a problem with Greenpeace. They're doing the wrong thing; they have to sit down with the industry and work on a solution.
He said Earth Island has a campaign against Mexico over their fishing methods, but "other countries, such as the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Maldives, etc ... these countries are working hard and Greenpeace doesn't give credit where credit is due."
About 5,000 to 8,000 dolphins a year are killed in Mexico due to its fishing method, Berman said.
Chanintr Chalisarapong, president of the Thai Tuna Industry Association, said the objective of NGOs and their work is "not for sanctions or punishment but for the solution, scientific data."
However, he added that Greenpeace "they attack one company, of course it's a Thai company, but it's also a global company. But all NGOs need to give scientific facts to the public. If [NGOs] let just one NGO attack one company, it can have a negative impact on the industry."
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Tuesday, Nov. 10, 11.07 a.m. ICT
'Stop building new boats'
One of the future challenges is the building of new and larger purse seine vessels, said Chanintr Chalisarapong, president of the Thai Tuna Industry Association.
From 2013 to 2015, 63 new units were built, which will contribute an additional 600,000 metric tons of tuna harvested world wide each year. Last year 4.4 million metric tons of tuna was caught worldwide and this year, Chalisarapong estimates that figure to be 5 million.
Compounding this issue is that these new vessels do not replace the old small boats. Rather old vessels are sold instead of scrapped.
"I believe the big commercial vessels in the last three years, [tuna prices were profitable and] people became greedy and they borrowed money from the bank to build large boats, but there were no regulations," he said. "Each company built boats at the expense of the small scale fisheries.
Small scale fishermen's harvest accounts for 20 percent while commercial accounts for 80 percent for tuna catch worldwide.
"At the end of the day who suffers the most? the small scale fishery - stop building new boats."
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Tuesday, Nov. 10, 10.45 a.m. ICT
Thailand: 'We don't deny we have a problem'
Chanintr Chalisarapong, president of the Thai Tuna Industry Association, addressed the issues surrounding human trafficking and IUU fishing.
"We don't deny we have a problem. We accept the problem and look to fix it in collaboration with the US and EU," he said.
He added solutions include better law enforcement, banning non-compliant fishing vessels, transparency and accountability.
"We have a new fishery management plan approved and we continue to implement that." The Thai government drafted a new fisheries act and anti-human trafficking act this year.
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Tuesday, Nov. 10, 9.19 a.m. ICT
25 year mark: 600+ dolphin-safe companies
This year marks the 25-year milestone for Earth Island Institute's Dolphin Safe eco-label. StarKist was the first to carry it and since then, hundreds have joined.
"We're up to nearly 600 companies world wide and keep getting more requests to join the program," said Mark Berman, director of Earth Island Institute's International Dolphin Safe Tuna Monitoring Program (IDSTMP).
These companies in more than 50 countries account for 95 percent of the tuna supply chain--retailers, importers and brokers. Safeway was the first retail chain to switch to only dolphin-safe tuna products.
Since the eco-label launched, dolphin mortality dropped more than 95 percent and has changed how the tuna industry operates.
"Thailand was one of the first companies to become dolphin safe," said Berman, adding that a main reason is because its main market, the United States, grew in consumer demand for dolphin safe products.
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Monday, Nov. 9, 11.02 p.m. ICT
Global GAP, FoS align audit requirements
Global GAP will partner with Friend of the Sea on the aquaculture certification, said Paolo Bray, director of FoS and founder and director of the Dolphin-Safe project in Europe.
"We assessed the two requirements and translated them into a requirement for Global GAP which is equal to Friend of the Sea. This way, companies don't need to do two audits," Bray said. "Companies can do the Global GAP audit and can carry the Friend of the Sea logo and the Global GAP number on their products."
He added that this "makes sense" because it will save time and money for companies.
"This is the first real collaboration between NGOs in this way," he said.
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Monday, Nov. 9, 10.23 p.m. ICT
Location draws more tuna firms
Friend of the Sea (FoS)'s second One to One meeting kicked off Monday night with a casual welcome dinner in Bangkok, Thailand.
Collaborating with Earth Island Institute and the Thai Tuna Industry Association, the event offers networking opportunities among representatives of retail and catering chains and certified international seafood suppliers.
"We attend major seafood expos and highlight and promote Friend of the Sea products, but we realized that that was not enough," said Paolo Bray, director of FoS and founder and director of the Dolphin-Safe project in Europe. "We can do better to help companies with certified products enter new markets, network with new buyers who are environmentally aware of retail chains worldwide."
He added that there are similar events, but not many in the sustainable seafood arena.
At the inaugural meeting in November 2013 in Venice, there were 16 retailers and representatives of 38 certified companies. Bray told IntraFish there are more tuna companies this year, especially with the event taking place in Bangkok.
He said next year's event will be in Brussels and time up with the Seafood Expo Global in Brussels.
On Tuesday, speakers include representatives from the hosting groups, the International Marine Mammal Project, Infofish and Global GAP.
"It's also an opportunity for companies with certified products to also talk about their environmental policies in depth with retailers."
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