Southern Star Seafood Pty Ltd, a Fijian company with over 30 years of experience in wholesaling and exporting live seafood, has secured a deal to export live seafood to San Francisco.

The company, which is fully owned by its parent company from Australia (Southern Star Seafood Pty Ltd), will be exporting live mud crabs, fish, slipper lobsters, and lobsters to San Francisco.

“We are very excited to be exporting live seafood to San Francisco,” said Business Development Director, Edmond Wong.

“We believe that there is a strong demand for high-quality, live seafood in the US market, and we are confident that our products will meet the high standards of our customers,” he added.

After a rigorous process Southern Star Seafood Pty Ltd managed to secure the deal.

“No company has exported live seafood from Fiji since 2006. We are the first company granted the licence and with strict conditions,” said Wong.

“We communicated with various Ministries and departments such as Fiji BioSecurity, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Fisheries.

“The responses from them are very positive and after 4 months of process, we finally got our export permit on 8th August, 2023,” he added.

The company had to meet a number of requirements, including having a state-of-the-art live seafood holding facility and complying with all environmental and food safety regulations.

“We are committed to sustainable fishing practices,” said Wong.

“We are working with local fishermen to promote day fishing and one-line one-hook fishing, which are both more sustainable methods of fishing.”

Southern Star Seafood Pty Ltd is confident that its success will pave the way for other Fijian companies to export seafood to the global market.

“We have established Live Seafood Holding tanks in Nadi which is approved by the Ministry of Health,” said Wong.

“Everything we do is done with sustainability in mind.”

“We are going to up-skill local fishermen to start doing day fishing One Line One Hook and much more targeted to the Donu and Kawakawa which will allow them to earn2-3 times more per Kg,” he added.

Mr Wong added that Investment Fiji had responded to their enquiries and facilitated meetings with the Western Division of Fisheries, as well as providing and attending a few of the key meetings.

Investment Fiji Chief Executive Officer, Kamal Chetty said it was great to have Southern Star Seafood Pty Ltd exporting live seafood to export to Hong Kong and USA.

“This is a major milestone for the company and for the Fijian economy,” he said.

“This export is a sign of the growing confidence of the Fijian seafood industry and its ability to compete in international markets,” added Chetty.

If any fishermen are interested in supplying live Seafood (Mud Crabs, Slipper Lobster, Donu and Kawakawa), they can get in touch with Wong on 8057339.

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