Canned tuna operators say Thailand can position itself as a new base of the tuna fish industry if it works more closely with Taiwan, a major tuna fish catcher.
The operators floated the idea during a recent meeting with Paiboon Bunlipatanon, chief of the Phuket Fisheries Provincial Office.
Among the moves is to allow Taiwan vessels to register as Thai fishing boats, which would help boost the amount of tuna fish landed in Thailand. They said Thailand has abundant seafood processing plants to handle a bigger tuna catch, according to Mr Paiboon.
Taiwan has been a major supplier for Thailand's canned tuna industry, which takes imported and local produce and exports it to the US and Europe. Thailand is the world's biggest exporter of tuna. It imports 150,000 tonnes of the fish from Taiwan every year.
Closer cooperation also will help local operators deal with more stringent fishery rules introduced recently. Thai operators are struggling to meet new requirements to clean up the industry under the amended Fishery Act which took effect this year. The 2015 law has been rewritten after the European Union yellow-carded Thailand's fishery industry for Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing (IUU). The amended law imposes many restrictions on the fishery industry and its harvesting methods.
Mr Paiboon said his agency will gather all proposals and present them to various agencies.
