More than 20 years after St. Vincent and the Grenadines was banned from exporting seafood to the European Union, Minister of Fisheries, Saboto Caesar is promising that the situation will be resolved soon.
Addressing the opening of the Jamaica-owned Rainforest Seafoods processing plant in Calliaqua over the weekend, Caesar said “quite recently”, St. Vincent and the Grenadines received technical support “so that we can be up to date with our Port State Measures regulations”.
The agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) is the first binding international agreement to specifically target illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Its objective is to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing by preventing vessels engaged in IUU fishing from using ports and landing their catches.
In this way, the PSMA reduces the incentive of such vessels to continue to operate while it also blocks fishery products derived from IUU fishing from reaching national and international markets.
Rainforest Seafoods, says its two processing plants in the country have Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), US Food and Drug Administration and European Union certification.
“We have hired international legal advisors, and very soon we are going to see the removal of the red card so we can export again to the European Union,” Caesar said.
Rainforest Seafoods Chief Executive Officer Brian Jardim, also addressed the issue of EU certification, saying EU certification of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) fisheries is one of the critical hurdles “for us and country certification is actively a work in progress at the government level.
“This will open up another world of possibilities and lucrative untapped markets that we currently ship to from other plants in the Caribbean. So that is just one more opportunity for growth we see out of this facility,” Jardim said.
The ban on Vincentian seafood entering the European Union has been raised in Parliament, with Opposition Leader, Godwin Friday tabling a question for the July 25 meeting of the National Assembly.
According to the Order Paper, Friday notes that “over two decades ago, SVG exporters were banned from exporting seafood to EU markets, principally in Martinique, pending certain improvements in the handling of the seafood catch in our facilities.
Meanwhile, Caesar said there will be enough seafood for local consumption as Rainforest Seafoods SVG Ltd officially commissioned its 25,000 square ft fish processing plant.
Caesar said he and Jamaica’s Minister of Agriculture, Pearnel Charles Jr., shared the stage at the 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference, held June 27 to July 1 in Portugal, where they discussed important issues of sustainability and that Rainforest Seafood SVG “started, of course, with a clear expression of a political will.
“But the political will alone and the discussions at cabinet alone cannot bring dreams to reality. The legislative framework had to be put in place. And before the end of this year, we are going to see through the Parliament of our country a modern Fisheries Act. We continue to work to ensure that we follow international standards.”
CMC
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