MAJURO, MARSHALL ISLANDS — The Marshall Islands expanded its footprint in the Western Pacific fishery in September and October to ramp up the tonnage of sustainably caught tuna supplied to Walmart. This western Pacific nation’s groundbreaking deal with largest retail company in the world is viewed by many Marshall Islands leaders as key to revitalization of a moribund local economy.
A purse seine fishing vessel offloads tuna at the Majuro Pacific International Inc. location. Photo by Jojo Kramer
The Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority has garnered agreement from all of the Marshall Islands-flagged fishing vessels that they will supply fish for the U.S. retail giant.
“By early October, we secured a commitment from all 11 domestic vessels to supply tuna,” said Glen Joseph, director of MIMRA. In addition, the Marshall Islands company managing the supply of tuna for Walmart, Pacific Islands Tuna, has also secured supply of tuna from purse seine vessels flagged in the Federated States of Micronesia, he said.
This expansion of supply comes in the wake of Walmart and Pacific Islands Tuna signing a two-year contract extension in June following successful completion of the first year of tuna supply in 2022. Through September, Pacific Islands Tuna has supplied tuna from the western Pacific caught according to internationally recognized sustainability rules that has resulted in more than 20 million cans of Walmart house brand tuna being produced.
Besides securing the supply chain to meet the tuna tonnage sought by Walmart, Marshall Islands authorities are promoting U.S. market access for sustainably caught tuna from the entire area managed by the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, where more than 50% of the world’s tuna is caught.
Options for expanding PNA members involvement in the multi-billion-dollar tuna value chain was a key point of discussions during the third PNA Leaders Summit, attended by presidents, prime ministers and fisheries ministers from the nine PNA member islands in the last week of October in Kiritimati Island, Kiribati.
Joseph said, "Obviously with the opportunities come many challenges and this is what our leaders discussed with the obvious question, ‘what's next?’ How can we value add our collective strength to harness more economic gains on the regional tuna stock?” The success of the Vessel Day Scheme is a model for continuing opportunities, he said.
Silk"A clear interest in the value chain through market participation as resource owners is now laid (by PNA leaders),” said Fisheries Minister John Silk after the meeting in Kiritimati Island.
Joseph said the country’s own industry is a focus of the Marshall Islands. “Our priority is to concentrate on the domestic Marshall Islands fleet to boost supply,” he said.
The vessels involved in supplying tuna to Walmart will only be supplying tuna that is caught without the use of fish aggregating devices, which is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council as a sustainable fishing method, he said.
The aim is to increase the volume of tuna landed at docks in Majuro for onward delivery by container vessels. Although the vast amount of the approximately 300,000 metric tons of tuna that moves through port Majuro each year is transshipped from purse seine fishing boats to large carrier vessels anchored in the lagoon, Joseph and others see an increasing shift to unloading tuna for storage in freezer containers on shore.
“We look forward to getting the FSM fleet, Marshall Islands Fishing Company and Pan Pacific Foods vessels into the supply chain,” Joseph said. “Walmart opened the door for us and we expect to see significant progress (in supply) in 2024.”
Silk captured the potentially significant impact of the Walmart deal to the islands.
"Imagine a day when we have more of our fish landed and processed adding to onshore employment, economic spin offs, sectoral investments including infrastructure support for these regional initiatives, connecting to international market contracts and access,” he said.
The leaders discussed the fact that most of the engagement in the tuna industry is done at the domestic level with individual members. But the leaders acknowledged, the effort lacks a regional direction as they continue to work in ‘silos’, Joseph said. “It is clear what the leaders want in terms of the regional direction and so as officials, we have our marching orders,” he said. mbj
