Improved growth in fish export to US

This represented a 166 per cent increase over May, 2006, and a 6 per cent growth over April 2007.

Fiji Trade Commission Los Angeles office trade and marketing officer, Colin King said: "We have been pushing hard to open up new markets and expand existing ones for fresh and frozen fish here in the USA and we are pleased to note the good results achieved by this export industry. This export product performed extremely well in the first five months of 2007, averaging a growth rate of 32 per cent per month and surpassing all records for the same period in the past five years."

He said this category of export included live fish, fresh or chilled reef fish (eg sabutu, kawakawa, ta, kawago), frozen deep-sea fish (eg walu, tuna, mahimahi), dried and smoked fish and vacuum packed fillets.

Mr King said the growth demonstrated the high and increasing demand for Fiji fish, not only by former Fiji residents, but by small US restaurants.