Pacific

This is part of a wider drive to improve the quality and reputation of Pacific cocoa, so that it can be sold into higher priced international markets. 

The Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access (PHAMA) Program brought together experts from PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Samoa to foster technical discussions and exchanges on cocoa quality testing and build the capacity of technical staff from relevant research organisations.

The impact of both the recent increase in world market prices for skipjack tuna and the re-licensing of United States purse seine vessels has prompted the move.

RNZI Marshall Islands' correspondent said in mid-January, a record 38 purse seiners were anchored in Majuro Lagoon but with departures this week that number was down to 14.

TVNZ reports the international study estimates US$616 million worth of tuna is taken illegally out of Pacific waters every year.

“No more than four per cent of fishing may be occurring illegally by pirate boats. So we know now that most of the problem is of unreported and unregulated activities of licensed boats,” said James Movick, Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency director general.

It's the first time the extent of tuna poaching in the Pacific has been valued and the report finds better monitoring is desperately needed.

The study has listed Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea as having expensive internet service.

According to Network Strategies of New Zealand, the last updated report on internet access affordability on Pacific Islands was three years ago.

“Technological progress in Internet access is slowly but surely being felt in the Pacific.”

It states that ADSL and/or fixed wireless broadband is available in all the countries they have included in their analysis including newcomer Nauru.

That’s over and above those who came to Australia under the earlier seasonal worker pilot programme, said Minister for Trade and Investment, Senator Richard Colbeck.

“We are in the process of negotiating an updated seasonal worker programme MOU with participant countries and we will sign an updated MOU with the Solomon Islands, and we're very pleased to be doing that.

In January, the US pulled out of a 30-year-old fisheries deal with the Pacific, after earlier committing to pay FFA members US$89 million for the right to fish in the region in 2016.

The FFA said the Pacific offered the US a revised package with fewer fishing days, reducing the required payment commitment to US$66 million.

In New Zealand's region of Hawke's Bay, there's an increased demand for Pacific workers contracted through the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme.

The General Manager of Focus Contracting Ltd, Linley King, said the industries would not have grown as much as they had in the past decade without the involvement of Pacific islands workers.

She said the companies that hire the workers - who come from countries like Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Solomon Islands - benefitted when these people returned for successive seasons.

China has developed a growing influence in the Pacific over recent years and this month Russia sent nearly US$9 million worth of weapons to Fiji with the negotiations for a second shipment underway.

However the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel Russel, said all countries could operate in the region effectively.

The report aims to assist Pacific Island countries with their decision making concerning deep sea minerals and provide information about the potential magnitude of the impacts of deep sea mining.

It gave US$6.5 million dollars last year and has just announced another US$359,000 dollars in additional support for the North Pacific.

The foreign minister Julie Bishop said the money will focus initially on the Marshall Islands where a state of emergency is in force.