GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana government Tuesday said it remains optimistic that a nearly 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 and Bangladesh, Canada, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
“We are working assiduously to reverse that ban with the U.S. 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 most of the protocols required to remove the current ban are almost completed.
The U.S. Food and Safety Inspection Services (FSIS) required catfish exporters to provide documentation to verify that their inspection system was in keeping with U.S. standards. This protocol came into effect in 2016.
Exporters here were given a transitional period to update their regulations and provide the relevant documentation. However, failure to do this within the timeline saw Washington ban catfish imports from Guyana in September 2017.
The ban had been imposed after Guyana was deemed to have fallen short of the U.S. 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 inadequate documentation specifying how the industry manages adulterated catfish products.
The U.S. standards for the import of catfish species demand the presence of inspectors on plants for one hour during an eight-hour shift.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) banned Guyana catfish species, including hussar, cuirass, and gilbacker, after the country failed to comply with the new requirements. The decision affects over 90 percent of all fish exports to the U.S. and over 70 percent of the overall fish export market.
Mustapha said that to reverse the ban. The government has started a review of the Fisheries Act to ensure 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 blocked from exporting catfish to the United States,” he added.
Meanwhile, the conference here has been told that the Sustainable Wildlife Management program 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 essential for the rapid transformation of the fishing industry.
The FAO Country Representative, Dr. Gillian Smith, noted the importance of finding solutions to the fishermen’s challenges, explaining that there have been stakeholder discussions that focused on the sustainability of the fisherfolk. This project is expected to enhance the recommendations further to ensure small farmers, communities, and small and medium fishers have access to the opportunities unfolding in the fishing industry.
“Being able to have a good regulatory framework, a set of rules or a set of guidelines that all of us are in agreement with is a vital part of everything that will include and ensure sustainability not just for this generation but the generations that are to come,” Dr. Smith said.
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