Fishy business. The Social Impact of SST.pdf - Act Now!

The National Shipping Page, 1.6.04Wewak wharf is not big enoughBy CLEMENT KAUPAA HIGHLY-placed official at the tuna-loining factory in Wewak says that the provincial wharf isnot big enough to cater for the factory’s fishing boats.The official, who asked not to be named, said the wharf’s bridge loading capacity is too smalland would be unable to hold the plant’s expected vessel calls and carry its’ unloading capacity.“At the moment the wharf’s bridge is too small and we will definitely be having trafficcongestion once our ships come in;” the source said.It is understood the bridge can accept only one ship at a time and that can be disastrous forthe plant as one of its ship would take about 3 days to offload fish to the plant.“If another cargo ship comes in before us, we cannot afford to queue and wait.“We have spent a K100 million to build the plant and we expect the government to make ittheir priority to expand the bridge,” the source said.Meanwhile, a meeting will be held today at Wewak between the Private Enterprises MinisterArthur Somare and officials of the plant and the PNG Harbours Board.Attempts to get comments about the nature of the meeting from the Minister’s office wereunsuccessful.The plant is expecting its’ first shipment to be in February to coincide with the opening.According to the official, the plant will initially receive and process 1000 to 1500 tonnes of tunaper day but at full production capacity, the plant will be receiving 2,000 tonnes of tuna per dayand will maintain a workforce of 1200.The Multi-million kina factory is set to begin production on Feb 14.179