Market access

Around 90 percent of our catch is exported, making New Zealand heavily dependent on world markets.

By improving our access to these markets, we can improve the value we get from our fisheries.

So the government gets involved in international trade negotiations. These include market access negotiations with individual countries.

New Zealand is working on free trade agreements with a number of countries, including China. An agreement with China could triple the value of our exports there; and increased customs cooperation might curb the export of black market seafood products to China.

Catches in some Northern Hemisphere fisheries have fallen recently, bringing hard times for fishers.

Some countries have helped their industries through subsidies. However, these make it cheaper for the companies to catch fish, which is unfair for New Zealand exporters. Some subsidies are for building more fishing boats, which can lead to overfishing.

So the government is working in the World Trade Organization to end fishing subsidies.

Fish processing.

Photo: Forum Fisheries Agency

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Updated : 16 November 2007

Working in the Pacific

The Ministry of Fisheries works closely with other government agencies to help Pacific Island countries get the most from their fisheries. In many of these countries, fisheries are their most important economic asset.

The largest and most valuable fisheries in the Pacific are tunas. These migrate across the region, and also visit New Zealand waters. To manage fish like these properly, all countries in the region and those who travel here to fish are working together to make sure catches are sustainable.

These countries have recently set up a Regional Fisheries Management Organisation to do this - the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. The New Zealand government is working in the Commission to set up programmes to keep track of where vessels are fishing and how much fish is caught. The government is also involved in negotiations around how these fisheries should be managed, and how they should be shared amongst the people and nations involved.

New Zealand works closely with individual Pacific Island countries on fisheries issues and is a member of the Forum Fisheries Agency, based in the Solomon Islands. The agency offers fisheries policy and technical services to Pacific Islands Forum countries.

The Ministry also works closely with its counterparts in the Pacific to develop the region's fisheries in a sustainable way.

New Zealand has close constitutional ties and historical relationships with the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau. So it has a particular interest in working with these countries on the development of their fisheries.