Albacore tuna caught in the Cook Islands exclusive economic zone is to be sold under a new Cook Islands Golden Tuna label.
The Cook Islands marine resources minister, Teina Bishop, has just returned from a three-week trip to China and Taiwan, where he met with officials from the Yuh Yow Fisheries Group.
He completed an agreement allowing Yuh Yow to process some of its Cook Islands catch at its Taiwan cannery.
Mr Bishop says the idea is to return some of the catch to the Cook Islands, but more importantly to look at the development of a niche export market for albacore.
About 5000 metric tonnes of albacore is caught annually in Cook Islands waters and processed in Pago Pago for the United States markets.
The locally-labelled canned fish will be sold in the Cook Islands, as well as exported to other destinations.
