By Pesi Fonua

Pacific Sunrise Fishing, Tonga’s only locally-owned commercial deep sea fishing exporter, is scaling down its operation in Tonga, "and to start sellling some of the assets that we have, like boats and things like that," Eddie Palu said on January 4. He told Matangi Tonga of his concern over a decision by government for the 2018 Foreign Exchange Control Act to become effective on 1 November 2018.

Eddie Palu and his wife Rosemarie, are the owners of Pacific Sunrise Fishing, operating a deep sea fishing enterprise, fishing for tuna, and other deep sea fish for export in Tongan waters during the past 20 years, while providing a reliable supply of high quality fish enjoyed by the local markets.

After years of serious investment in the local industry, Eddie explained that it was only during the past four or five years that “we started to get our head above the water, after investing a fair amount of money”.

Today, Pacific Sunrise’s six deep sea fishing boats are the only remaining licensed local commercial fishing boats fishing in Tonga’s 700,000 square km exclusive economic zone.

Eddie said that the demand for fish remains very high, and they had a five-year Tuna Management Plan. The company exports tuna and mahimahi to Japan, the mainland USA, Hawaii, Auckland and Sydney. Sometimes they have 20 tons of fish for export weekly but they can't get it all out of Tonga. Unfortunately, the airfreight capacity is for only 17 or 20 tons, and they have to share it with others.

Getting fresh fish to the international market is a priority. If the cargo capacity was available, he believes that Tonga should have 20 deep sea fishing boats out there to harness its fish resources.

Pacific Sunrise employs 75 staff, has six deep sea fishing boats, its own fishing packing facility, a refrigeration facility, a retail outlet and supplies fish to 65 restaurants throughout Tonga.

A licence for local commercial deep sea fishing costs $40,000 pa'anga.

The government earns more by selling licences to foreign vessels charging USD$700,000 for a licence for a foreign commercial deep sea fishing boat.

Overseas vessels

The CEO for the Ministry of Fisheries, Dr Tu’ikolongahau Halafihi told Matangi Tonga that the 20 licences had been allocated with 10 licences for local and 10 overseas deep sea fishing boats, but at the moment there were only six local and six overseas deep sea fishing boats fishing in Tonga’s EEZ.

Dr Halafihi said that foreign currency earning from fishing dropped by a third, from $15 million in 2017 to $10 million pa'anga in 2018.

No specific reason had been identified for the decline, but there were a number of issues relating to how Small Islands States can stop illegal fishing in their territorial waters.

Local commitment

Eddie said that he returned to Tonga from Australia not because of any business opportunities but because of his parents, “then my wife joined me and after fishing around here for a few years l thought let's give it a go”.

“During the past four or five years we started to get our heads above the water after investing a fair bit of money. But what is happening right now, I don’t know what is going to happen next.”

The National Reserve Bank of Tonga announced that the Foreign Exchange Control Act became effective on 1 November 2018, and Eddie considered the decision “a kick in the butt.”

Under the new Act, the government can force local business people to repatriate their foreign assets to Tonga, including forced selling of their overseas property.

"It is a worry for us, because before we came here we already bought a house in Australia with our earnings in Australia...we did not come here because of business opportunities. I came here on a family, personal matters then my wife joined me. [Now] I feel like that we have been forced," Eddie said.

Future

The scaling down of Tonga's last locally owned deep sea fishing company, comes at a time when the government is trying to attract foreign investors.