My name is Felix Neli and I am the Chairman of the Holona Fishing Cooperative in Manus Province.
In a brief history, the interest to create Holona Fishing Cooperative’s was one that started years ago with the building of a bush material house in Pak, however, over time the house began to rot and (it) fell.
We got into the fishing operation and sold our fish at the Manus fish market but unfortunately, the fish market here is not always consistent. The problem with our Fish market is one day it is open then another time its closed for almost 3 months’ so this poses as a difficult turn of events for those of us trying to get somewhere in the fisheries business.
But as leaders we remained steadfast all these years whether or not we received government support or not.
Today, the government now acknowledges those of us in the village and our small scale fisheries businesses. We have observed that the government has a plan and is focused and have realized our challenges like the low cost of fish.
The buying price of fish is so low that it does not even begin to cover the complete cost of fuel and this has resulted in the loss of business, but we hope that with the intervention of NFA and their support we may be able to get somewhere successfully.