Approaching three years since the United States placed a ban on catfish imports from Guyana, the government here is still to comply with regulatory requirements and fishing businesses have had to downscale or export to Canada while they await the reopening of the lucrative New York market.
The United States imposed a ban on catfish (siluriformes) imports from Guyana and other non-compliant countries in September of 2017. The exporters from the various countries were required by the US Food and Safety Inspection Services (FSIS) to provide documentation to verify that their inspection system was equivalent to US standards.
Exporters told the Sunday Stabroek that with no word from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of Fisheries, they had to revamp their markets. The Sunday Stabroek has reached out on numerous occasions to the Chief Fisheries Officer Denzel Roberts for an update but no response has been forthcoming.
Guyana has fallen short of the US standards in three areas: the presence of inspectors; insufficient documentation detailing verification of each step in the sanitation and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP); and insufficient documentation specifying how the industry manages adulterated (tainted) catfish products.
Local authorities have been trying to comply and meet these regulations, but with the third anniversary of the ban approaching, exporters are unsure of whether they will be able to re-enter the United States, particularly the lucrative New York market.
Commenting on the ramifications, Heeralall Sukdeo, owner of Sukdeo and Sons Fishing Enterprise says he has been shipping fresh caught and smoked fish to Canada for close to a year now.
“New York has a bigger market but we cannot go there. We have to make use of the Toronto market, there are a lot of Guyanese there and we have been able to tap into that market,” Sukdeo, whose fish processing plant is located at Annandale, East Coast Demerara, said.
The exporter noted that he had also tapped into the Surinamese market but with COVID-19 travel restrictions in play, he is unable to supply that market.
Since the ban has been in place Sukdeo has had to make the tough decision of letting go of some of his staff and to sell one of his two processing plants.
Sukdeo said when he was exporting, he would usually send about 100,000 pounds of frozen catfish to New York every month. His current exports are just a fraction of what he is accustomed to.
“We just don’t have that demand anymore. The New York market was a good market because of the large Guyanese population but that is not the case now. I now have like five workers when normally we would have had like 12 workers,” the exporter said.
He added that he feels that little representation is being made on their behalf to the United States and local authorities are dragging their feet on the issue.
“I feel like the authorities are moving too slow to assist us to get back into the market. We as exporters are not the only ones affected. The fishermen they are the ones most affected because this was a big market for them,” he pointed out.
Managing Director of Punto Fresco Seafoods Dwyane Faber also shared a similar experience. He explained that his company had to tap into exporting other varieties of fish to the North American markets to cushion the imposed ban.
“We had to seek alternative fish varieties, such as scale fishes like the Grey Snapper and Trout. The catfish had accounted for at least two-thirds of the market but it is no longer a large market,” Faber explained from his Coldingen, East Coast Demerara Fish Plant.
He stated that there is still a demand for catfish by Guyanese abroad but they are unable to fulfill it given the current restrictions.
According to Faber, the Canadian market is currently helping to cushion the impacts from the closure of the New York market.
“Since the ban there has been a great revenue loss not only for us but the fishermen. It is not like there is no demand, there is but we cannot access the market,” he pointed out.
Faber explained that like other exporters they too supply the Canadian market with fresh caught and smoked catfish.
Giving an insight into the fishermen’s dilemma, the exporter explained that many had to convert their fishing boats and seines to catch other fish as there is no large demand for the catfish on the local market.
He also lamented the sloth of the authorities in meeting the requirements set out by the United States to facilitate the trade.
“We need to have more representation to change the perception of Guyanese catfish. No matter how much lobbying is done if they don’t have a different perception of the Guyanese catfish they might not allow it and look to promote their variety of catfish,” Faber opined.
Fisher’s dilemma
Parmeshwar Jainarine, Chairman of the Number 66 Fishermen’s Co-operative Society, told the Sunday Stabroek that the ban on the trade has significantly impacted fishing activities.
He explained that since the ban, the price for catfish species, specifically Gilbacker, dropped to $200 to $300 per pound in contrast to the $800 to $1000 it fetched when it was being exported to the United States.
“Right away the market was affected. The price dropped dramatically from about a $1000 to around $300. This was a niche market for the fishers because it was the only fish giving that price. The snapper and Trout were [and is still being sold] at $250 to $350 per pound but the catfish always held the price,” Jainarine explained.
He went on to state that many fishermen were subjected to hardship as they had invested to meet the needs of the market.
“It is very frustrating at this point because the prices are very low and there is not a great demand for the fish. If fishers catch the catfish it is hard to get off their hands because the local market does not consume this amount,” he explained. In the past, Jainarine said, they saw exporters from the Essequibo Coast venturing up the Corentyne to purchase the fish.
He also stated that Surinamese fishermen also ventured into Guyana and sold their catfish because of the niche market.
Ban
In 2015, FSIS amended its regulations to establish a mandatory inspection programme for fish of the order Siluriformes and products derived from these species.
The amendment was the result of a 15-year battle by the Catfish Farmers of America (CFA) to curtail catfish imports from Vietnam. The US government had previously passed the 2008 and 2014 Farm Bills, which amended the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA), to make ‘‘catfish’’ a species amenable to the FMIA, and therefore, subject to FSIS inspection, before removing the term ‘‘catfish,’’ so as to make ‘‘all fish of the order Siluriformes’’ subject to FSIS jurisdiction and inspection.
The 2015 standards, which became effective on March 1st, 2016, demand the presence of inspectors in (processing) plants for one-hour during an eight hour shift. According to the USDA website, though the standards became effective in 2016, a transitional period was granted before full enforcement commenced on September 1st, 2017.
The US Embassy here had said that Guyana was notified since November 2015 of the steps that needed to be taken to avoid a ban on the export of catfish to the United States.
“We even gave Guyana an extension until February 3, 2018 to comply with the new regulations,” the embassy had said in a statement, while pointing out that most countries in the hemisphere had complied.
