Gov't, farmers go fishing for solutions

Zadie Neufville, Gleaner Writer

Fish farmers are hopeful that a series of meetings between them, processors and the Government will result in solutions that will help to revitalise the sector.

But even before the meetings end, there are concerns that pressure from importers could see Government reversing the ban on the importation of cheap Asian tilapia.

The ban was instituted in April under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and based on sanitary and phyto-sanitary concerns.

The 2009 Social and Economic Survey of Jamaica recorded a 12.6 per cent reduction in the production of farmed fish, supporting farmers' claims that Government's liberal trade policy has virtually wiped out their productive capacity.

Reports are that farmers have been unable to fill the gap the ban has created. However, given the current low prices and weak markets in the sector, farmers believe that an argument is being made for the resumption of tilapia imports.

Given the current environment and "the lack of a set government policy on imports," fish farmers like Donny Bunting, one of the largest producers of tilapia, are fearful of committing the investment required to ramp up production.

Bunting pointed out that, even as fish farmers are being urged to ramp up production, the climate that caused the decline remains. There is still a considerable amount of imported tilapia in local supermarkets, he said.

Bunting is not confident that the Aquaculture Fish Monitoring Committee set up by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to determine demand and supply in the marketplace can withstand the pressure to restart imports. The flood of cheap frozen fish into the local market has depressed the farm gate price of fish, making it difficult for farmers to stay afloat in an environment of high cost of electricity and security, and rising cost of feed and fingerlings, he added.

Bunting has traced the downturn in the industry to the loss of export markets in 2008. For the most part, he said, fish farmers relied heavily on pond-side sales, but these have all but dried up as too many farmers compete for the few vendors.

With no organised marketing structure in place, Bunting said, prices plunged.

Bunting saw his production at Longville Farms fall from 30,000 lb to 1,500 lb a week. In 2009, he was forced to shut down his processing plant.

No official records

While there are no official records showing the number of fish farmers who have left the business since 2008, an agriculture ministry survey in February this year indicated that 45 per cent of the 2,500 acres of fish ponds are out of production. This accounts for 55 of the 183 food-fish farmers. Two-thirds of fish farmers are subsistence or small farmers operating between one and five acres of ponds.

Farmers like Karl Jumi noted that, in addition to the shortage of buyers, prices of between $100 and $130 being offered at the farm gate are well below production costs. The acting manager of the Aquaculture Branch at the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, DeHaan Brown, noted that the low prices are an indication of the urgent need for an organised marketing structure for the food-fish sector

He pointed out that the low prices are confined mainly to Clarendon and St Catherine, which accounts for 1,983 acres of fish ponds. According to Brown, fresh tilapia sells for between $170 and $200 per lb in some parts of the island.

Brown reiterated Government's commitment to the preservation of the sector, but he cautioned against expectations of Government involvement in marketing, pointing out that the Fisheries Division has no mandate to market products.