Ronni returns from a year in Japan
Te Ohu Kaimoana's Global Fisheries Scholar Ronni Symon recently returned to New Zealand after spending 12 months at Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd (Nissui) in Tokyo. Now fully ensconced in work at Sealord Group Ltd in Nelson, she tells Te Tai Pari about how she spent her time in Japan.
I'm a fisherman or fisherperson – whatever you prefer. I started fishing about 14 years ago long-lining for snapper out of Leigh. I've done most of my fishing between North Cape and Table Cape and I've been hooked ever since, so to speak.
When I moved back to my home town of Tairawhiti/Gisborne, I started learning about the seafood industry from a Maori perspective with Bill and Ian Ruru. I spent a year at Tairawhiti Polytechnic as the Maritime Studies Programme Co-ordinator before I left for Japan last year. The idea of Te Ohu Kaimoana's Global Fisheries Scholarship is for Maori trainees to spend a year in Japan to study a big fisheries business, learn about Japan's culture and how business is done, and to build relationships between Maori and Nissui.
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| Ronni Symon at a hot spring on the volcanic island of Sakurajima off Kyuushu. The spring flowed from a cave in the cliff where a shrine had been erected. |
Nissui is a huge company and has many companies and global partners around the world, including a 50 percent share of Sealord. Nissui is the second largest seafood business in Japan and a leading frozen food processor. While Nissui is a seafood company, its top selling processed food product is grilled rice balls and over half of its revenue comes from pharmaceutical products.
After my application for the scholarship was successful, I spent a number of weeks learning the Japanese language with a tutor in Gisborne. Once I got to Japan, I spent a further two months on language lessons. Learning the language was quite difficult to do and I can say that even after my 12 months there, I still hadn't fully grasped Japanese. After I had managed to achieve some understanding and ability of the language, Nissui asked what I wanted to learn and tailored a programme to suit my area of study. I wanted to deal with aquaculture, highlighting tuna and eel farming.
Over the year, I spent weeks in different parts of Japan: time at a fish feed plant in Imari; another fish meal plant at Onagawa; time at the head office learning marine business strategy planning and logistics and many other aspects of Nissui's business.
I spent three weeks in logistics training, import-export and customs regulations. Probably the most beneficial part of this training for me was watching Sealord hoki being unloaded at Osaka, and seeing exactly what is required for New Zealand seafood products to reach Japan in an acceptable state.
A highlight of my trip was spending a small amount of time with Mr Naoya Kakizoe, the President and CEO of Nissui. This is a privilege most employees of Nissui have not had. Another highlight was Tsukiji fish market. If visiting Japan, this is definitely an experience not to be missed. The quantity of seafood that goes through Tsukiji is amazing, but what really amazed me was that some of the farmed tuna from Chile were huge – 200kg plus.
I feel extremely privileged and honoured to be a part of the Global Fisheries Programme because I wanted to get into the aquaculture scene. It helped me build my confidence and knowledge of aquaculture processes and now I know more about Japanese aquaculture than I do about New Zealand aquaculture. However, I'm starting to learn about New Zealand aquaculture and hope that I can bring my skills learnt in Japan to help my Kiwi employer – Sealord. I want to see a future for our industry and my goal now is to get involved in finfish aquaculture.
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Protecting Māori fisheries assets for future generations