Fiji’s fisheries sector contributes six per cent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), says fisheries planning officer Saimone Tauvoli.
While making submissions to the Standing Committees on Natural Resources in Suva on Thursday, Tauvoli said this figure did not reflect the full contribution of the industry.
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“During our meeting with the Reserve Bank of Fiji about a month ago, they highlighted the fisheries sector was sitting at 6 per cent,” Tauvoli said.
“The exact figures are not yet in the system with Fiji Bureau of Statistics, but that is what we have been informed of,” he said.
“When you look at our GDP contribution, it does not show the canned products exports.
“We are only valued economically and sometimes we feel that we are undervalued because as I have mentioned, the fish canning factories we have here are valued under the manufacturing sector.”
Tauvoli said the value of fisheries resources needed to be determined first.
“Right now we are just looking at the catch and the output from the resources, but we need to value the resources that we have first so that we can see the capacity of fisheries in contribution to the GDP,” he said.
Tauvoli said for the past few years, the total catch was at 9000 metric tonnes, which was below the annual total allowable catch of 12,000 metric tonnes.
He added the Fisheries Ministry, which separated from the Ministry of Forests in September after a Cabinet reshuffle, had 10 employees at present.
SOURCE: FIJI TIMES/PACNEWS [/restrict]