Local tuna fishing company Apia Export Fish Packers has begun work to get back into the fish export market, according to a report by a U.S. seafood online news service.

SeafoodSource reported Tuesday that Apia Export Fish Packers co-owner, Steve Cleverly, reportedly said in an interview with SeafoodSource that their attendance for the first time at the Seafood Expo Asia in the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre from 14–16 September was part of their broader plans to get back into the fish export business.

According to SeafoodSource, the 26-year-old company was able to attend the expo in Singapore last week, thanks to the support of the Solomon Islands-based Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA). 

“It’s been quite a strategy by FFA to have us at this show, to allow us to come here, because we would never be able to afford to do it otherwise,” Mr. Cleverly said.

Apia Export Fish Packers catches tuna in Samoa’s exclusive economic zone, and in a typical year, the company produces between 500 and 800 tons of frozen tuna and 300 and 400 tons of fresh tuna, SeafoodSource reports. 

The company has already sent tuna overseas via export to markets like the U.S., but COVID put a stop to some its ambitions, especially when it came to fresh exports, Cleverly said. But with its exports halted, Apia Export shifted to supplying Samoa's local market.

“COVID impacted us. The cost of freight, the freight logistics, the air-freight market stopped completely,” Mr. Cleverly told SeafoodSource. 

Air freight in Samoa is highly dependent on whether or not there’s any regular passenger flights to the area, and COVID-19 restrictions made it so tourism – one of Samoa’s main sources of income and the main driver of passenger flights – dried up overnight.

“Samoa is relatively isolated compared to Fiji or Papua New Guinea, our services were severely stunted,” Mr. Cleverly added. “They always had a lot of planes, so we suffered for sure.”

Regular container freight shipments also were reduced, as strained shipping companies concentrated on their most-lucrative routes. That neglected the needs of Samoa’s industries, Cleverly said, SeafoodSource reports.

“They have hundreds of these containers around the place, but no one is coming to pick them up,” Cleverly said.

Things are starting to return, he said, but now labor shortages in New Zealand and Australia are resulting in workers from Samoa leaving behind Apia Export Fish Packers to pursue opportunities abroad.

“It’s a very small labor market. It’s a complicated structure in Samoa,” Cleverly said.

Despite the obstacles his company faces, Cleverly told SeafoodSource that attending the expo in Singapore helped the company meet potential customers – and get an idea of what’s out there.

“You get so engrained in running the company, when you come to a place like this, we see another world,” Mr. Cleverly said.

Now, the company is considering whether or not to pursue Marine Stewardship Council certification and other certification programs.

“We have to look at what we have to do, and how we have to do it, and whether we’ll go down that track,” Mr. Cleverly added, SeafoodSource reports. 

The end goal is to elevate Samoa’s position in the global seafood industry, according to Cleverly.

“It’s to put Samoa on the map, to put our country on the map."