Guyana seeking to reverse US ban on catfish export

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana government Tuesday said it remains optimistic that a near six year ban on the export of catfish species to the United States will soon be reversed.

Washington in 2017 imposed the ban on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country as well as on Bangladesh, Canada, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria and Pakistan.

“We are working very assiduously to reverse that ban with the US administration. I am very optimistic that we will have that done shortly,” Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha told the opening of the opening ceremony of a conference seeking to gather recommendations to amend the Fisheries Act (2002).

Mustapha told the audience that the majority of the protocols that were required to remove the current ban are almost completed.

Exporters of catfish were required by the US Food and Safety Inspection Services (FSIS) to provide documentation to verify that their inspection system was in keeping with US standards.

This protocol came into effect in 2016.

Exporters in Guyana were given a transitional period to update their regulations and provide the relevant documentation.

Failure to do this within the timeline, however, saw Washington imposing a ban on catfish imports from Guyana in September 2017.

The ban was imposed after Guyana was deemed to have fallen short of the US standards in three areas, namely on the issue of the presence of inspectors; insufficient documentation detailing verification of each step in the sanitation and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) process as well as insufficient documentation specifying how the industry manages adulterated catfish products.

The US standards for import of catfish species demands the presence of inspectors on plants for one hour during an eight -hour shift.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) instituted the ban on catfish species from Guyana, inclusive of hassar, cuirass and gilbacker, after the country failed to comply with the new requirements.

The decision affects over 90 per cent of all fish exports to the US and over 70 per cent of the overall fish export market.

Mustapha said that in order to reverse the ban, the government has started a review of the Fisheries Act to ensure that the requirements are met.

“Recently, we have had the entire Fisheries Act being updated [and] we have already submitted because you know our country was blacklisted from exporting catfish to the United States,” he added.

Meanwhile, the conference has been told that the Sustainable Wildlife Management programme is working with the Ministry of Agriculture's Fisheries Department and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the “Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Support project.

“The proposals and the work that you will be putting in for the next two days will form part of the work of the AG (Attorney General)'s office,” said Mustapha , noting that Cabinet has already set up a sub-committee to look at various aspects of the Fisheries Act.

Mustapha said improvements to the Bill are important for the rapid transformation of the fishing industry.

The FAO Country representative, Dr Gillian Smith, noted the importance of finding solutions to the challenges fishermen face, explaining that there have been stakeholder discussions which focused on the sustainability of the fisherfolk and this project is expected to further enhance the recommendations to ensure small farmers, communities and small and medium fishers have access to the opportunities that are unfolding in the fishing industry.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.