Progress report for
Eco Labeling/ Catch Certification
Achievement at a glance
1. The Fiji Fishing Industry Association (FFIA) received its catch certificate under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and is effective from 23 January 2018 - 22 January 2023. The certificate was extended to include yellowfin tuna and the three (3) adjacent high seas to Fiji's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in addition to the previous one of albacore tuna and Fiji's EEZ.<br>2. Upon receipt of the certificate, two workshops on chain of custody and traceability were held for the executives and operational officials of the Ministry of Fisheries and the fishing industry for their better understanding and awareness of the subject matters. They were held from 3 - 4 April 2018 for the executives and 5 - 13 for those in operations. Funding for the workshop was through assistance from the Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) of Honiara.
<br>3. External funding from our foreign development partners to assist implement the client action plans of the MSC catch certification conditions have been approved.
<br>4. The target in our voluntary commitment is to have 75% of the FFIA member vessels to be certified under MSC catch certification. Currently sits at 73.2%.
Challenges faced in implementation
1. Not applicable<br>2. None
<br>3.1 The partners in this project, the Fiji Ministry of Fisheries (MoF), the Fiji Maritime Academy (FMA) through Fiji National University (FNU), FFIA, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) New Zealand and WWF Pacific office, had its project inception workshop in October 2018.
<br>3.2 The success of the project rests with the full support from all partners, especially Government ministries and agencies, in all aspects of the project implementation.
<br>3.3 The processing time of doing things amongst Government Ministries needs to be immediately revised as it is not conducive to development partners and the domestic private sector. Government badly need to put into place a more pragmactic ways of facilitating the needs of the private sector for a stronger growth in the economy.
<br>4.1. We may only make 3 submissions annually to our Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) for vessels to be certified under MSC certification.
<br>4.2 During the assessment there were 34 certified vessels. As anticipated, because of the inclusion of yellowfin tuna and the 3 adjacent high seas, it grew to 52 and that’s when we reached the 3 submissions. This is despite member vessels queueing to be considered to be included. This is only possible after from 23 January 2019.
Beneficiaries
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