Seafood earnings drop, jobs look shaky

Seafood export earnings have fallen again, to $1.2 billion in the year to September 30, down marginally on the previous year's earnings of $1.208 billion.

The industry's earnings peaked at $1.53 billion in 2002.

Seafood Industry Council chairman Dave Sharp said yesterday the industry as a whole was under financial strain and "rationalisation would likely be ongoing".

Sealord has just announced it is laying off 100 workers from its Dunedin processing plant.

Sharp said the industry's drop in export earnings was a result of high exchange rates, rising fuel costs and government charges.

The industry had also had to face up to big reductions in the commercial catch of hoki, which was a mainstay of the fishery in its best export year, 2002.

In 2001, the total allowable hoki catch was 250,000 tonnes a year, but in September last year, Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope announced cuts to 100,000 tonnes.

Sharp said the resulting short-term economic pain should be outweighed by ensuring long-term sustainability.

The latest export earnings are at the level of 1991, the year the industry famously announced an earnings target of $2 billion production by 2000.

But the council is sounding a quieter note, highlighting that it is still the country's fifth biggest export earner, supporting 26,000 jobs.

And, after vocal criticism from environmental groups over use of bottom-trawling methods, it claimed the industry was recognised internationally as a world leader in sustainable fisheries management.

"We will fight hard to protect this reputation and our ability to deliver consistently high-quality products that are harvested under environmentally sustainable processes," Sharp said.

"Environmental groups have reactivated a noisy campaign and are seeking a ban on bottom trawling, by far the most common method of fishing in New Zealand's exclusive economic zone and internationally."

The council estimates more than $800 million of the $1.2 billion of export earnings came from species caught by trawling methods.

- NZPA