NYC importer blames Govt for fish ban

…local exporter urges quick compliance

By Jarryl Bryan

Urging Government to accept responsibility, a Guyanese born Queens, New York businessman, whose business enterprises include fish imports, has called on the coalition Administration to do whatever it takes – even if it means bringing in a consultant – to fix the issues that led to the ban on catfish import into the United States from Guyana.

In an interview with this publication, concerns were expressed by Dave Narine, owner of Dave’s Guyana Fish Market situated on Liberty Ave, New York. The businessman stressed that since fish exports from Guyana are heavily dependent on the catfish family, the ban will have dramatic effects on business, both locally and in NYC.
“The impact will start, first and foremost, with the fishermen,” he related. “They would have the biggest impact. And then our market here will have a definite impact. About 70 per cent of the gross sale of fish coming out from Guyana is in the form of the Catfish family.”
“They should hire a consultant or a consultancy firm to address this matter. Because it would take more than a regular staff to look after this (ban). I think they should hire a consultant or consultancy firm to fix it.”
As such, Narine noted that the ban would most certainly have a devastating impact on trade in the sector between Guyana and the US. According to the businessman, Government should accept full responsibility for the situation fishermen now find themselves in since they were informed of measures since 2015.

“The Government should accept full responsibility for this. I’ve tried to bring it to their attention. And everybody always knows a lot. I was aware of this fact because it (emanated from the) United States Agriculture Department.”
“But I think what happened with them; they changed their Veterinary Public Officer. And I think they (may not be) equipped enough or experienced enough to handle this problem,” he related.

Compliant
Meanwhile, a representative of the locally-based Gopie Investments Incorporated also raised concerns about the ban. According to Raoul Gopie, the Managing Director of the fisheries export business, catfish are an important part of Guyana’s export of fish.
“Had we been dependent on exports of catfish, the move by the USA surely would have been catastrophic to our business,” Gopie related. “It does however prevent us from exporting any catfish to the USA however small the amounts were, which more than anything will be affecting our customers who supply many Guyanese in the Diaspora.”
“On the whole, catfish exports do represent an important part of our country’s export service and therefore the only way to fix this problem would be to have our Government departments address this problem quickly by becoming compliant with the new US regulations.”

Requirements
Veterinary Public Health Unit Director, Dr Ozaye Dodson had said previously that the imposition from the US export market was just a temporary technical barrier to trade. Dr Dodson said the move by the USDA was a “protectionist measure” by that country’s public health system, lobbied for by the catfish farmers.
The US Food Safety Inspection Services (FSIS) asked Guyana to provide the relevant documentation to verify this country’s inspection system equivalence to the US standards, or its equivalent public health system.
Dr Dodson claimed Guyana complied with the request. However, the country fell short of the US standards in three areas: firstly, on the issue of the presence of inspectors; secondly, there was insufficient documentation detailing verification of each step in the sanitation and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) process; and thirdly, there was insufficient documentation specifying how the industry manages adulterated catfish products.
PSC President Eddie Boyer told Guyana Times previously that the ban is nothing new, but could be lifted if Government and private companies that are exporting work together to comply with the new requirements. He said it is not an impossible task, but advised that both parties work diligently so as to lessen the economic impact this ban will have on the trade of these specific fish species.
New US standards for import of catfish species demand the presence of inspectors at plants for one hour during an eight-hour shift. Dr Dodson explained that Guyana’s inspection system utilised a “risk-based approach”, which is a European Union (EU) standard. Guyana was among several countries banned recently from participating in the US catfish export sector.
When interviewed by this publication recently, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder had promised that Government is trying to satisfy the requirements they had been warned they would be in default of.
“We’re putting things in place to satisfy the requirements. The requirements are stringent and it’s difficult to meet some of them easily because of the laboratories, the analyses of the water and a number of things.”
“But we’re working towards it. The ban applies to us, to Canada, the West Indies, everywhere. This is like them trying to protect their industry. That’s what they’re trying to do.”