Reconsider opening of sea cucumber season: Official

Business

THE recent notice by National Fisheries Authority (NFA) on the opening of the sea cucumber season needs thorough reconsideration, discussion and clarification, according to the PNG BDM (beche-de-mer) Exporter’s Association.
President Harry Landu, in a statement, noted some areas of concern which included:

  •  Quality control to produce good quality beche-de-mer;
  •  The need for standardising grading;
  •  Price control;
  •  Total allowable catch controls;
  •  Lack of remittance of export receipts; and,
  •  Lack of policy governing this fishery.
    “Production of poor quality beche-de-mer is an issue of grave concern and the industry’s call for the NFA to support effective extension training and awareness programmes on how to produce good quality BDM product have not been heeded by NFA at all,” he said.
    “This is a serious concern as we have witnessed in the last two years where containers of PNG BDM exports being rejected at the market place.
    “It is both uneconomical and bad for our export image as it affects any effort on our part to secure premium price for our BDM.
    “For the 2017/18 seasons, NFA recorded that over 500,000 fisheries were direct beneficiaries of over K42 million in direct cash payments by buyers.
    “With exports volume that earns over K100 million in returns and with much more to be earned if processed well, surely an investment of about K2 million to conduct this essential training and awareness on quality control is worth the net benefits the outcome will gain.”