Industry brings in ‘about K600mil’ from fishing day sales

PAPUA New Guinea makes about K600 million annually in the fishing industry by selling the fishing days, says Fisheries and Marine Resource Minister Dr Lino Tom.
“The days are rented to foreign fishing companies to fish in our waters,” he said.
Tom said the country actually did not sell its tuna stock but instead sold the fishing days at US$10,500 (K37,170) per day.
“That is how we make most of our money in the industry right now.”
Tom said the cost of tuna caught in PNG waters was around US$1 billion (K3.5bil) a year.
“That is why we are trying to put in place facilities to develop the industry on-shore and cut down the cost of doing business,” he said.
He said if PNG wanted to sell tuna, it would be generating about K3.5 billion a year.
The National Fisheries Authority is paying nearly US$120 million (K424.8mil) in production rebate.
“This is like free money given back to foreign fishing industries operating on shore,” he said.
“This is the difference we had in doing business here compared to other countries like Thailand.”
Tom said it created job opportunities for locals.
The Pacific Maritime Industrial Zone (PMIZ) will also cut down the cost of doing business on shore, attract investors and sell our tuna stock directly.