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Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Blue and Green Economy, Julian Defoe has highlighted a number of challenges faced by the fisheries sub-sector in Dominica.<\/p>\n
He was a guest on Focus on Government and Development aired on DBS Radio, hosted by Dionne Durand-Smith recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fisheries sector has been receiving impacts due to tropical storms and hurricanes and the government has interceded every time,\u201d Defoe said. \u201cWhat we will do is implement mitigation measures\u2026in the marine world usually investments are very expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cWe do have other challenges such as marketing, again this can directly lead to past effects of hurricanes especially Maria which significantly damaged the Roseau Fisheries Complex\u2026this sort of crippled our marketing hope that we had.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Defoe, the government had quite a number of initiatives on play in 2017 prior to September, \u201cand we are hoping to leapfrog the fisheries sector in terms of taking our fish further afield in the US market and the European market\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Another challenge he mentioned was the issue of improving the post-harvest handling of fish.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo these are technical things that we can address through training,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
He indicated that the government has done tremendous work and will continue to do so, and certain key services and amenities across landing sites, such as the availability of ice is one of the most critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cIce is also as important as fuel,\u201d Defoe stated. \u201cIn some communities even though we do not have major infrastructure, like Marigot, Roseau, Portsmouth, but areas you can have the basic hygiene and sanitation for receiving that catch, because if we are going to have a strategy moving forward for export we need where the fish is landed to have the basic service.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cSo these are some key challenges we have had which we have started to address.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Defoe pointed out that one of the key areas government plans to tackle is to increase the value of exports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to increase exports, but also the value,\u201d he noted. \u201cSometimes people don\u2019t make the correlations between a value. We can ship the same volume with a higher value.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to state that fisheries is an extractive industry, \u201cMarketing for us is the first thing that will have value. We want to make sure that our products we are sending out–we are getting the best value, and the best value at this current moment comes from the sale of fresh fish.\u201d<\/p>\n
He further said that this has always been the primary focus, with frozen as secondary.<\/p>\n
Defoe explained that this is one of the main reasons that the Roseau Fisheries Complex was built.<\/p>\n
He further explained that the Portsmouth and Marigot Fisheries Complex are meant to feed the Roseau Fisheries Complex as collecting hubs because they do not have the cold storage capacity that Roseau has.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have their functions, they are not meant to compete with each other, they are meant to support the Roseau Fisheries Complex,\u201d Defoe said.<\/p>\n
He said Roseau was always meant to be the marketing hub, so this is why there are much more amenities and services there such as cold storage, the availability of ice, and a fish processing area.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Defoe said there are several players in play ready to move that sector forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are serving the regional markets, St Maarten, St Croix, and Tortola and this has developed a very unique business, an opportunity for our middlemen,\u201d he revealed. \u201cWe have to improve the transportation for inter-regional trade. Again, this is another area which is being identified for improvement, even for agriculture products.\u201d<\/p>\n
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