The Pacific islands of Hawaii, Ponape, Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, Solomons, and French Polynesia, have each imported live cottonii seaweed at different times. In 1986 both Fiji and the Gilbert Islands started commercial seaweed farming and today Kiribati, with a production of over 1000 MT per annum, is the world's fourth largest exporter of raw cottonii seaweed, behind the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. Fiji re-initiated farming development for the third time in 1998, and exports have been increasing during 1999.
Five years ago seaweed farming was introduced to the Northern Line Islands of Kiritimati (Christmas Is.) and Tabuaeran (Fanning Is.), with production from these two islands now reaching around 1000 MT per annum. Cottonii seaweed production now returns over AUS $ 380,000 per annum in farmer payments, and this is continuing to have a significant impact on the economies of these two isolated atolls. This successful development in Kiribati has led to a renewed interest in farming, not only in Fiji, but also in a number of other Pacific Island nations.
Considering the number of different Pacific trials over twenty years, it should be asked why more Pacific Island countries have not developed a commercially viable cottonii production. There are many reasons. Firstly, several factors must come together for a successful development. Trials may well show cottonii will grow well in Pacific waters, but without the support and backing of a foreign buyer, a significant financial aid input, and a technical aid input, commercial development has never succeeded. The original development of farming in the Philippines required a consortium of effort from a foreign processor, multilateral monetary aid, foreign technical assistance, and Government support, over a ten year period. Commercial farming can now be achieved in a shorter time, but the necessary input categories have not changed. The recent development in the Northern Line Islands merely serves to illustrate the necessity for these different inputs to come together in order to achieve a successful seaweed farming industry.
Other factors which have acted against further development in the Pacific Islands are the frequency of tropical cyclones, high export freight rates relative to export rates from South East Asia and the prolific numbers of herbivorous fish found around some Pacific reefs. These constraints are considered in this report.
There are also other environmental and sociological factors which may preclude the development of cottonii farming at some Pacific Island locations. The motivation of the local populations for farming seaweed remains the most difficult factor to predict, and will be influenced by both the price paid to the farmer and the existence of other cash-earning opportunities.
Cottonii was first introduced to the islands of Tonga in July 1982. Approximately 90 kilograms of both cottonii and spinosum were taken from Kiribati to the Vava'u Group under a development programme jointly funded by the Industrial Development Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat and a New Zealand seaweed processing company, Coast Biologicals Ltd.
Initial growth rate and productivity trials identified large shallow water reef flats of the southern and eastern perimeter of the Vava'u islands as potential production areas using the off-bottom farming technique. Pilot ‘seed’ stock demonstration farms were established in 1983, and although grazing by juvenile Siganids (rabbit fish) during January and February was identified as a constraint, the 1983 farm stock quickly recovered from this problem. In 1983/84 some 20 individual farms were started, but in the January/February period of 1984, 85, and 86 the problem of Siganid grazing was more intense than before, resulting in complete stock loss from farms. It was necessary to increase the small surviving Vava'u stock with importations by air from Fiji in 1985, and again by ship in 1986 and 1987.
From 1984 to 85 sixteen tonnes of dry cottonii was produced and sold by Vava'u farmers, but in 1986 the consultants managing the project considered that the annual occurrence of large numbers of juvenile rabbit fish prohibited the commercial development of farming in Vava'u. Farming for just nine months of the year, harvesting, and then protecting a ‘seed’ stock for three months, was considered uneconomical. The Tongan Fisheries Division continued with assistance to the remaining 3 farmers in 1987, but the fish grazing problem resulted in low uneconomic yields, and the Fisheries Division farm in Vava'u was eventually abandoned in 1989. No cottonii plants have been reported as surviving from the 1980s.
In July 1985 trial cottonii plots were established at Hihifo and Koulo on Lifuka Island in the Ha'apai Group, but Fisheries Division staff reported that the plants were quickly grazed to extinction by herbivorous fish. In September of 1985 cottonii was introduced to Tongatapu from Vava'u, and a trial plot was established at Nukuleka. Fisheries Division built up a large stock at several lagoon sites, principally as a ‘seed’ stock supply for shipment to Vava'u farmers in 1987. Trial plots were maintained in the Tongatapu lagoon at least until the end of 1987, and numerous plants have survived for 15 years in lagoon channels by vegetative reproduction. No significant fish grazing problems were reported from the lagoon sites, although Fisheries Division reports describe large losses to ‘ice-ice disease’ in 1987, during periods of heavy rain and siltation. As far as the author is aware, no individual or family production units were ever developed or encouraged on Tongatapu.
14 years on there are some misconceptions in some recent reports that Vava'u cottonii farming failed because of “uncertainty over markets”, “low prices resulting in loss of farmer interest”, “seaweed farming [becoming] a very unstable means of means of livelihood because of market uncertainty”, “inconsistency in the supply of ‘seed’ material”, “the single buyer [beginning] to experience financial difficulties”, and “seaweed farming… not [being] economically attractive when compared to other forms of subsistence fisheries”. All these statements are incorrect and merely perpetuate misconceptions arising from lack of detailed knowledge. The Vava'u development failed because the intensity of seasonal grazing by juvenile rabbit fish prevented farmers from achieving economic production levels. Speculation about marketing problems is inaccurate and erroneous. The New Zealand buyer, Coast Biologicals Ltd., did not withdraw from purchasing in Tonga until 1988, after farm production ceased in 1987. World demand for cottonii was continuing to increase at this time, and had there been any production from Tonga, it could have found a market with other international buyers. When farmers in Vava'u did sell supplies, the prices paid were not low, but in line with prevailing international prices. Farmer incomes were low, and the return for effort was low, because farmer production was low. A successful development will only require one initial ‘seed’ stock distribution phase. Moreover, as yet, farming has never been viable where ‘seed’ stock has to be grown away from production locations and distributed to farmers on an annual basis.
To suggest that cottonii farming is not economically attractive when compared to other forms of subsistence fisheries is particularly misleading. By definition, subsistence fishing is a non-monetary economic activity, whereas farming is very much a monetary activity, and hence must be compared with other cash-earning opportunities. At fertile sites family units of two people working part-time have consistently produced 11–12 MT dry weight per annum at some Pacific Island sites. If the family receives a conservative 50% of the export FOB value of their production, this equates to a family net income of USD 3,300 (T$ 5,000) per annum.
D. Luxton & Associates has been closely involved with the Kiribati seaweed industry since 1992, formulating the five-year EU development programme for the Gilbert Islands, and managing the four-year NZODA development programme for the Northern Line Islands. This report has made considerable use of the Line Islands experience and earlier work by the author in both the Kingdom of Tonga, Fiji and S.E. Asia.
