The crabs have landed

Mud crabs from out of Gavuone in Abau, Central arrived in Singapore last week. Locally-owned company Zavath Seafoods Ltd and the National Fisheries Authority have started this seafoods export venture which could soon reach into the Chinese mainland market and other destinations around the world

By ALPHONSE BARIASI
IT has taken months of planning and changes to schedules but finally the crabs arrived in Singapore last Friday.
Diners with a liking for crab meat may have enjoyed their first taste of crabs from Gavuone in Central’s Abau District.
This may not have been the first time live mud crabs have been flown out of PNG to an Asian destination. But for first locally-owned enterprise fully backed by government, it certainly was.
Mud crabs fattened at a fishery facility at Gavuone village were the first to hit the Singapore market through an arrangement between the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) and privately owned enterprise Javath Seafoods Limited.
When company director Alphonse Wong Parpa first made a presentation of his proposed seafood venture to the NFA, it immediately caught the attention of managing director Justin Ilakini who hails from Gavuone. His people have mangrove forests which provide them a healthy supply of mud crabs but there was then no reliable market for the villagers to sell their catches and make a good return from them.
What moved the NFA boss to action was the fact that Parpa’s company had already invested in a seafood handling facility at Taurama Valley in National Capital District and had a pretty good idea about a business strategy basically involving coastal villages from Central and possibly Gulf initially.
Zavath Seafoods and NFA then signed a memorandum of agreement in April which villagers from coastal provinces would get training and guidance from NFA to farm and harvest mud crabs to sell to the company.
Fishermen from five provinces – Central, Gulf, Milne Bay, Manus and New Ireland will be the first to trial the project which may also invole the national airline Air Niugini assisting through subsidised air freight. Other coast provinces that have mangroves which have mud crabs – Western, Morobe, Madang and East Sepik for instance, might be involved later.
The first cargo of crabs was from crab farm initiated by the NFA managing director at his Gavuone and was ordered by the Jumbo chain of restaurants, one of the largest in the city-state.
Zavath Seafoods has already established a re-export/distribution depot in Singapore which will handle shipments to other Asian markets or markets further afield. Already there has been some interest from as far as Texas in the United States and Dubai in the Middle East.
The opening of the Zavath Seafoods depot in Singapore was during the recent Asian seafood expo in Singapore.
Company director Alphonse Parpa says from the interest shown, meeting the demand is going to be quite a task but he is positive that as long as there is a steady supply from villages, it can be done.
Zavath Seafoods representative Tangabic Frani accompanied the first load of crabs on the Air Niugini Flight to Singapore last week. On the ground to receive to witness the arrival of the crabs were Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Jelta Wong and NFA MD Ilakini. They were obviously delighted with the Jumbo Restaurant chain took delivery of the crustaceans. (Only four of them died en route which was to be expected.)
How it started
Zavath Seafoods was birthed by Parpa about seven years ago, when he witnessed villagers trying to sell their crabs in restaurants, city markets or just about anywhere along the Port Moresby suburban streets.
“That prompted me to work on ideas how to not only help the villagers but turn mub crab buing into a viable business. It took me another five years to research and make enquiries to come up with this idea of setting up seafood business,” Parpa says.
The company is also planning to buy and export lobsters, prawns, sea cucumber and fish in future.
The obvious next big step after Singapore would be the large Chinese market but entry into it requires a lot more work due possibly to more stringent quarantine requirements.
One-stop shop
The understanding between NFA and Zavath Seafoods is to set up a one-stop shop for coastal village communities to sell their catches to Zavath which will export them to its Singapore depot to distribute to markets in the region and other parts of the world.
The company has also reached an agreement with the Central provincial administration to engage fishermen in villages along the Magi and Hiritano highways to set up crab fattening facilities. There are already 30 sites identified. Eventually other provinces would also have similar set ups to supply directly to the company’s handling and processing facility at Taurama Valley, NCD.
Although the NFA’s seasonal moratorium on the harvesting of mud crabs is still in force until Nov 2, a special permit was granted for Zavath Seafoods to buy the first 200kg of crabs to trial the new export venture.
And indications from Singapre are that the first shipment went quite successfully.