Opinion Page
WTPO TO CHALLENGE FISHERMAN'S LOGIC ?
By Henk Brus (August 08, 01)
It is now almost 7 months ago since tuna boatowners got together in Manila, and managed to bring an end to the skipjack tuna crisis. A crisis which was the worst that ever hit industrial tuna fishing and which lasted almost 2 years. At that meeting in Manila all those present were convinced that if no end was put to this long depression of prices, many fishing companies would go down. Today we are looking at a completely different situation. In the meantime tuna boat owners have started their own formal organization the WTPO (World Tuna Purse Seine Organization). In Guayaguil last March, the statutes were approved by 13 member countries.
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If we look at the price developments over these last 7 months we can say that prices gave us a real roller coaster ride. Prices have gone as high as almost USd 1000 M/t and now are again nearing USd 700 M/T CFR Bangkok. Now with the upcoming WTPO meeting on July 9th in Kaohsiung,Taiwan the tuna organization will face its first real challenges in its new formal set-up. Prices are on the way down, but unlike last year there is now no longer a global over-supply situation. The current over-supply situation is purely a Western Pacific issue. Other oceans produce much lower catches then normal , but in the Central and Western Pacific oceans catching for the Taiwanese and Korean Fleets has been good. The Western and Central Pacific represent 55% of the global skipjack resource, but there is hardly any major tuna production in the area ( except for American Samoa). The remoteness of this region, and the distances to all major tuna consumption markets, make Thailand a very important outlet for frozen tuna from this area. |
The great importance of Thailand to skipjack tuna fishing industry has made the price USd CF Bangkok p. M/T for 1.8KG-up skipjack the benchmark for world industrial tuna prices. And this is just where the major problem lies for a part of the boat owners attending next week WTPO meeting. The USd 700 CF Bangkok price might still be O.K for some having very good catches, it is far below cost price for those experiencing a decrease of 50% in volume compared to last year.( Eastern Pacific).
How the WTPO will handle this unbalanced global supply situation, will be one of its first major challenges. Issues have to be addressed such as: How could such a rapid price decline, and increase in catches and supply to Bangkok be prevented ? Critics say it is a useless effort to talk about these issues, because it is all caused by the "fisherman's logic". A logic which is always to catch as much as possible as long as they can, even if it means the end of their resources. Some say that the current price decline was caused by the fact that despite initial positive behaviour in catch reductions, some tuna fishing companies started following fishermans logic again. A logic which says if prices start to decline, just catch more, and still make good profit. If they go even lower, start catching even more, and cover at least most costs, then you are still O.K. We know what starts to happen after that !
There seems to be only one route for the WTPO. Its statutes already clearly revealed the intentions. First determine exact fleet sizes. Catch capacities and flags will be registered. The next step will be to determine the size of the skipjack resources in each ocean, not an easy job at all, scientists would say ! Problem is that the Western and Central Pacific ocean are still partly a black spot, with little regulation and hardly any monitoring on skipjack catches, in comparison with the highly regulated Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Preservation of the worlds skipjack resources for future generation, has been a matter brought forward on several meetings. A great goal for the WTPO, but to implement it on a global basis will be a head-on confrontation with "fisherman's logic", and another of the organizations challenges. Positive results in this direction could make the WTPO highly succesfull !
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