Justin Ilakini, Managing Director of the National Fisheries Authority of Papua New Guinea, provided an update on the K105 million project initiated in January 2022 aimed at developing the Voco Point coastal fisheries hub in Lae. He said that the project, which had experienced a two-year delay due to funding issues, will now be resumed back this year.

While outlining the project phases to establish a coastal fisheries hub for products from Morobe and its surrounding provinces with inland fisheries, aquaculture and coastal fisheries, he emphasized the hub's role in enhancing the mobilization of seafood volume and supply within the region to promote healthier nutrition intake.

This initiative aligns with the suggestions of Lae MP John Rosso to address the needs of the community, meet NFA requirements, and establish key offshore processing infrastructures.

Source: https://www.thenational.com.pg/fisheries-hub-to-be-built/

Speaking at the EU Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum in Brussels, Belgium, Minister Zameer highlighted challenges faced by small island nations and called on EU to eliminate the disproportionate taxes-imposed on Maldives fish products to assist Maldives in its efforts to diversify its economy by creating equal opportunities for trade and investment.

This has been the case, with Maldives graduating as a middle-income country in 2013, to which, EU countries, including the UK, imposed a 24 percent duty fee. As a result, the previous governments have also discussed reducing the taxes levied on fisheries exports due to the increase in the price of fish exported from Maldives to Europe. In December last year, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had also indicated a positive outcome from the discussions held to reduce taxes.

Source: The Edition

Uniformity of size in shrimp culture is an indication of good farm management, contributing towards increased productivity, predictability, consistency, and also importantly, better prices at the point of sale. Assessment of uniformity involves looking at the coefficient of variation (CV); percentage of uniformity; and class distribution in terms of length and weight. These assessments can be performed manually as well as using artificial intelligence, as outlined in this article which bases its observations on data extracted from production results recorded by a high-efficiency farm in Brazil.