| James Kon |
WITH its 10th shipment of 25-tonne containers laden with locally caught skipjack tuna to Japan expected to be completed by October this year, all seems well for Yamako Pacific (Brunei) Sdn Bhd, a local company established to process Brunei-caught tuna into value-added tuna products through a state-of-the-art Japanese processing facility.
Spending the first three months of operations training local staff, Yamako Pacific, which exported its first container in July to the strictly regulated Japanese market and doubling its exports to two containers in August, is now looking to increase its capacity and add another two vessels to its fishing fleet.
The company is on track to again double its exports in October, with four containers scheduled to be shipped out.
At present, Yamako Pacific (Brunei) has one fishing vessel – Nakhoda 1 – to catch fresh tuna. Nakhoda 1, owned by YP Nakhoda Sdn Bhd, a sister company of Yamako Pacific, is an 18-metre, 350-horsepower custom-built vessel equipped with the latest technologies for sustainable tuna fishing.
The seafood processing firm has also managed to secure the Japanese market for its processed tuna products and successfully negotiated fair prices among Japanese importers.
Speaking on the company’s progress in an interview yesterday, Yamako Pacific (Brunei) Director Rafiuddin Ghazali said, “We are currently in the process of finalising the specifications for two new fishing vessels, and we hope they will be ready in the coming months.
“The price tag of both vessels comes close to BND1 million. The vessels will include technology such as fish finders and the latest navigation systems, among other features.”
Besides Japan, Yamako Pacific (Brunei) is also looking to break into new export markets in the future, such as China, Europe and the United States.
The Director added that the company is planning to build a new storage facility, having already reached full capacity in the existing one.
In keeping with these expansion plans, Yamako Pacific (Brunei) is also planning to increase local employment in the company. Currently 15 Bruneians are working in its processing plant and another five locals in administration.
Country Manager of Yamako Pacific (Brunei) Kazuharu Watanabe, disclosed that its fishermen caught a massive 65kg big eye tuna a few days ago.
“This is the first time such a high-grade tuna was caught in Brunei waters,” he said.
Rafiuddin Ghazali added of the catch, “The big fishes are coming in and we managed to catch yellow fin tuna and big eye tuna. Moving forward, we are hoping to catch more of the big fishes which will help increase the total value of our exports. We are also supplying the yellow fin tuna that we caught locally to SnoFood and Excapade.”
Commenting on the company’s freezing systems, he said, “Yamako Pacific (Brunei) utilises the freezing process of Proton freezer that is equipped with a super electro-magnetic freezing system to maintain the quality and freshness of the tuna to be exported. This is a very expensive machine and difficult to maintain.”
Due to these achievements, Yamako Pacific and its investor, SBI Islamic Fund II (Brunei), was featured by IFN Islamic Finance news in its publication last week, citing SBI Islamic Fund II’s successful Islamic financing structure as well as its strong commitment to operating sustainably with strong social impact on the communities it operates in. SBI Islamic Fund II (Brunei) Limited is a Syariah-compliant private equity fund tasked with investing in late-stage companies in the Asia-Pacific region.
The fund’s investors include the Tokyo-based SBI holdings, Brunei’s Ministry of Finance and Economy, and Jeddah’s Islamic Development Bank.