Fewer Chinese now recruited in fishery sector, agency says – 台北時報 Feedzy

Staff writer, with CNA

An announcement by Kaohsiung-based Chiang Teng International Enterprise Co on the Ministry of Agriculture’s Web site that it would no longer recruit Chinese fishers reflects a long-term trend in the sector, the Fisheries Agency said on Monday.

Amid a decline in demand for Chinese crew, Taiwan’s fishery sector is focusing more on Southeast Asian countries as a source of fishers, the agency said.

As Taiwan has long had an acute labor shortage, particularly in the agriculture sector, foreign fishers are especially sought-after, the agency said, adding that the number of Chinese fishers working on Taiwanese fishing boats has in the past few years trailed far behind the number of fishers from Southeast Asian countries.

Fishers from China were the first allowed into Taiwan, as the two countries share a language, the agency said.

However, many of those who worked for Taiwanese fishing vessels were over time promoted to managerial positions, it said.

As Taiwan tried to diversify its sources of labor, demand for workers in the fishery sector shifted to Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, it said.

At the end of last year, there were nearly 300 Chinese fishers in Taiwan’s near-shore fishery industry, significantly fewer than the approximately 9,500 from Indonesia and 1,200 from the Philippines, while 1,300 from were from other countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, agency data showed.

In the deep-sea fishery sector, there were more than 800 fishers from China, more than 13,800 from Indonesia, about 5,000 from the Philippines and 1,000 from Vietnam, while about 200 were from other Southeast Asian countries, the data showed.

Other industries, such as the agriculture, animal husbandry and aquaculture sectors, also have a shortage of labor, the ministry added.