Guyana has significant potential to boost its Atlantic seabob shrimp industry but needs to address declining biological stock issues, according to a report by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
According to the report, Guyana has an annual harvest of 17,000 tonnes, valued at an estimated US$46 million, making it the world’s largest producer of Atlantic seabob shrimp. The industry employs over 1600 persons.
From 2015 to 2020, the three industrial seabob firms in Guyana produced around 7600 tonnes of peeled seabob per year of which about 93 percent was exported to markets in the United States and the European Union, while 7 percent was sold to local supermarkets, hotels and restaurants.
The strong demand from the United States and the European Union for increased volumes of higher-value seabob is a key opportunity to boost the industry potential but only if stock issues can be addressed; bigger shrimp can be caught; and strong domestic demand for fresh, minimally processed seabob that meets food safety and quality requirements and can be sold into restaurants and supermarkets to meet projected demand by the tourism and oil and gas sector.
The declining catch trend has been identified as the main threat to the value chain.
According to the report, industrial firms attribute this drop in catch to a reduction in fishing effort as a result of an increase in sargassum and an inability to find and capture seabob, possibly due to a declining stock. Challenges to fishing effort were further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, it was stated that reasons for fluctuating and declining catch are not well-studied. It has been recommended that studies be conducted to investigate the problem, identify the root causes and take proper actions to ensure the sustainability of the seabob stock.
It was noted that declining catch trends implies declining stock abundance and therefore threatens long-term profitability. There is also increased competition from India in the United States market as well China and Belize in regional markets.
In the artisanal seabob industry, there is a strong domestic demand that can be exploited. “Guyana has one of the highest levels of domestic seafood consumption in Caribbean Community and Common Market countries; consumer survey found that three-quarters of the surveyed households consume seabob, with average family consumption of 5.4 kg/year,” the report said.
In addition, there is demand for safe, clean, fresh fin fish and shrimp (including seabob) increasing with retail outlets changing (supermarkets and restaurants); tourism and oil and gas sector developing.
“The industry does not have any coordinated targets for the export market, nor strategic research plans to comprehensively address priority issues related to the decline of seabob stock levels since 2017,” the report emphasized.
In an attempt to improve the performance of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in the face of concerns over declining catches, a broad coalition of partners has joined hands with FISH4ACP, a global initiative of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) with funding from the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), to strengthen fish value chains.
The fisheries and aquaculture development programme focuses on making fisheries and aquaculture value chains more productive and sustainable, with an emphasis on supporting women given their crucial role in fish value chains. It is being implemented by the FAO and thus far has identified five countries where there is significant potential to develop these sectors by making them more self-sufficient, creating jobs and preserving biological stock levels.
Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Tanzania, Guyana and the Marshall Islands are the first five of 12 African, Caribbean and Pacific states analysed by FISH4ACP.
“This initiative marks an important step towards a blue transformation of fisheries and aquaculture in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, benefitting not just fishers and their communities but ensuring that growth goes hand in hand with environmental sustainability and social inclusiveness,” said FAO’s Gilles Van De Walle, Chief Technical Adviser, FISH4ACP, in a press statement.
