Production Minister Bruno Giuffra on Friday announced the upcoming opening of three tuna-unloading ports along the Peruvian coast, in order to boost the country's canning industry.
"We have opened a new point in Paita [northern Piura region] that had not been used to offload tuna from foreign vessels for 10 years," the minister pointed out.
"And we are doing the same with Ferroles [Lima] and Coishco [Chimbote region] to have three tuna-unloading points in Peru's central northern area," he added.
In this sense, the government official highlighted the Ministry focuses on different ports along the Peruvian coastline to receive foreign vessels.
"Foreign tuna vessels are allowed to fish in Peruvian waters, on the condition that they give up 30% of their catch to the country. Unfortunately, having a single port had led to a bottleneck. It was painfully lengthy," he noted.
Giuffra also addressed reforms on tuna trade regulations. Until now, only tuna-processing companies —also in charge of canning— were allowed to buy this fish, but now tuna traders may do so as well.
"Today, we are fixing the regulation and closing the circle so tuna bought from foreign vessels is processed in the country. There's the possibility to eventually re-export [unprocessed tuna], but […] letting it in and out [of the country] automatically does not benefit anybody," he told RPP radio and TV station.
Said regulations set the ideal scenario to reactivate the canning industry, thus resulting in a strong impact on direct human consumption, a central axis for the current administration.
"We are paying attention to fishing possibilities in that area [the 'outer ocean triangle' granted to Peru by The Hague ruling]. We have evidence that close to 1 billion tons were caught over the last week, which is excellent news," he pointed out.
Yet, tuna is a highly migratory species, so such figure cannot be counted as a permanent benchmark, the Production head explained.
"As a State, we have set the conditions to boost the tuna canning industry, previously disrupted due to regulatory issues," Giuffra concluded.
(END) CNA/MDV/DHT/MVB