World’s first Fair Trade marine products from small scale fisheries
News
Dr. Eny Buchary, a member of the
Fisheries Advisory Council since 2013, was involved in the recent award of the
world’s first Fair Trade certified marine capture fisheries product from small
scale tuna fisheries in Maluku, Indonesia. The "Komite Fair Trade Tuna Assilulu”
is located in a remote fishing village called Assilulu, in the north east of
Ambon, a Moluccan island part of Indonesia. The Komite was formed in April 2014,
and it represents three Fisher Associations and 89 individual fishermen from
five different villages. The three associations, Tuna Lestari Assilulu, Tuna
Sejahtera Assilulu and Sinar Asia Assilulu, were the three first Fair Trade
Certified Fisher Associations during the 2014 Autumn. They received their first
premium payment in December the same year.
Fishermen aligned with the Komite use
single-hook handlines, and refrain from applying fish aggregation devices, as
to reduce bycatch (this is nearly non-existent). Read more about this initiative here.