Tuna Cartel Draws Global Attention

Called the “Tuna Cooperation”, the cartel was initiated by eight countries which are Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA): Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, PNG, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, reports InfoFish. According to the organistaion, the cartel owns the largest tuna fishing zones and resources in the world. The proposed Tuna Cartel aims, just like OPEC the oil cartel, to control tuna supplies and prices.

Though the proposal is way off to be implemented, it has resulted in a lively debate among countries in the Pacific, regional organizations such as FFA, WCPFC and SPC as well as the major tuna fishing nations including South Korea and Japan.

Pacific waters, which is said to hold the world’s last remaining healthy tuna stocks, has recently attracted a lot of interest from the global tuna industry. World Bank, through its subsidiary company, the International Finance Corp (IFC), has also committed to develop the industry in Papua New Guinea’s Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ).

Meanwhile, Japan’s tuna fishing industry is also offering its “Islandization” initiative, while Korea has pledged to implement “domestication” policy which would commit for more investment in the tuna sector’s downstream activities in the Pacific Countries.