eAs of August 29, 2003

More amazing tuna facts

• RD FISHING Group, based in General Santos City, operates a state-of-the-art tuna cannery in Papua New Guinea and is considered one of the biggest investments ever made by a Filipino businessman in the Pacific island-nation.

Its owner Mr. Rodrigo Rivera was named honorary consul general by the Papua New Guinea government for his significant contribution to the country's economy.

• Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), is a system designed to ensure the safety of food products processed by establishments around the world.

It was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure the consumer's right to safe and quality food products by identifying specific production hazards and suggesting possible control measures.

• All export-oriented tuna processing plants in General Santos City are HACCP accredited.
• This year, the European Union (EU) slashed tariff rates for Philippine canned tuna imports from the previous 24 percent level to only 12 percent. The Philippine government expects the local fishing industry to increase production by 20 percent and generate an additional 2,000 jobs as a result of this tariff reduction.
• Most of the world's tuna catches are marketed raw, filleted or canned.
• Purse seiners - large fishing boats equipped with mechanized gear and equipment - catch small tuna that is canned; while the motorized bancas (outrigger boats) catch the larger-sized variety that are required by export-oriented processing plants.
• The "payao system", a fish aggregation device widely used by Socsksargen fishing fleets, originated from the Celebes-Sulawesi area in Indonesia.
• The Philippines is among the main signatories of the Multilateral High Level Convention on the Management of Highly Migratory Fishes in the Western and Central Pacific (MHLC), a "government to government" collaborative effort among United Nation member-countries to systematically manage and oversee the allocation of fish resources across the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.
• The MHLC's Convention decrees that all fishing boats - regardless of size - must be equipped with satellite transponders to enable the Convention's Pacific Commission to monitor all fishing activities within its areas of jurisdiction.
• Fish quality degradation is largely due to poor handling practices aboard fishing vessels and insufficient knowledge in preserving fish quality.
• Temperature and handling practices will largely determine the quality and freshness of fish products.
• The quality of a fish product determines the price the consumer will pay for it.

This holds true not only for the fresh fish market but also for canned tuna.

• Fish products delivered to canneries in General Santos City have a near-zero rejection rate.