Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishery: An Urgent Problem of Thailand

Abstract

Fishery products have played a crucial role in the export sector of Thailand into the European Union (EU) since they started trade.  The two main marine products are canned tuna and Surimi – minced fish meat.  In recent times, two major problems have been emerging to prevent the growth of the Thai fishery industry, namely human trafficking and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishery, or so-called IUU Fishery.  The IUU fishery issue was first recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to promote global food security.  However, the European Union (EU) is the first national group to formulate an IUU fishery protection scheme.  The EU then penalized the Thai marine industry by announcing a yellow card which damaged the image of Thai products.  As a result, Thailand is required to perform a development plan to deal with problems such as a vessel monitoring system adoption, legislation reviews, action plan formulation, market diversification, and strategic marketing communication.  The plan is expected to be effectively implemented to maintain a positive image and market share of Thai marine products in the EU market.