Fishing Industry Association (PNG) Inc., newest Member of the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST)
Press Release – 20 September 2021—We are delighted to announce that the Fishing Industry Association of Papua New Guinea (FIA PNG) has adopted the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) traceability standards to further our commitment to responsible tuna sourcing. We are confident that the adoption of the GDST traceability standards across tuna supply chains will benefit the industry globally.
Since 2011, FIA PNG has adopted and implemented the Fisheries Information Management System (iFIMS) platform that allows stakeholders in the Pacific access to real-time information across the tuna supply value chain which is based on e-tablet and e-reporting.
During its recent meeting, the members of FIA-PNG unanimously agreed to join GDST and pledged to accept and adopt its standards, including the key data elements (KDEs) that will provide us with a framework of what data needs to be collected at each step of the tuna supply value chain.
The President and Chairman of FIA-PNG, Mr Sylvester B Pokajam, said that; “the members have also made their membership public by formally adopting the GDST standards since their release in March 2020, for their individual fishing and processing companies”.
Mr Pokajam further added that; “the FIA-PNG members have been using the integrated Fisheries Information Management System (iFIMS) since 2010 to track and trace their tuna and related products in PNG which has nearly all of the minimum key data elements as required in the GDST standards. By adopting the GDST standards, the members are simply reaffirming their commitment to ensuring that the legal origin of their seafood products are guaranteed and to further eliminate IUU fishing in the Central and Western Pacific convention area”.
About The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST)
GDST is an international, business-to-business platform established to advance a unified framework for interoperable and verifiable seafood traceability. The GDST brings together more than eighty companies from around the globe and across different parts of the seafood supply chain. In March 2020, after a multi-year industry-led drafting process, the GDST released the first-ever global standard (GDST 1.0) governing information content and data formats specifically for seafood traceability systems. Learn more at www.traceability-dialogue.org or contact the GDST by email at info@traceability-dialogue.org.
About the Fishing Industry Association of Papua New Guinea (FIA PNG)
The FIA-PNG was founded in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 1991 and incorporated under Associations Incorporation Act 1966, by companies and operators in the tuna industry (both the fishing and shore-based processors), prawn operators, lobster operators, the beche-de-mer buyers and exporters, associated industries such as crew recruitment and placement agencies, fisheries consultancies services; and provincial umbrella artisanal fishing cooperatives.