With the ban on the export of catfish (Siluriformes) to the United States still in effect, discussions between technical officers here and in the US are ongoing in an effort to resume the trade.
“Bilateral talks continue between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Guyana Fisheries Department within the Ministry of Agriculture on the process of complying with U.S. regulations regarding seafood imports,” the US Embassy Public Diplomacy Office reported. The update shared was in response to questions asked by this newspaper.
The ban which has been in effect for almost four years has forced `gilbaka’ export businesses to downsize since they can no longer access the US/New York market. Prior to the ban, it had been lucrative due to the large Guyanese population in NY.
Exporting 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. However, Guyanese exporters were unable to do since most of the requirements were not in place when the ban took effect.
Many fishing businesses and exporters however turned to exporting to Toronto, Canada, but with a small market, the demand is not there.
Recognising the importance of regaining the US market and its contribution to the local economy, President Irfaan Ali during his address to the American Chamber of Commerce’s (AmCham) annual general meeting on Wednesday called for the body to champion the removal of the ban.
Ali in his speech at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre posited that the body must not only promote and hail US businesses entering the Guyanese market but also seek to help small Guyanese businesses in being able to overcome hurdles in the US market.
“Whilst I’ve seen great aggression in you championing the cause of American businesses here, which we appreciate, we need the same aggression in championing our cause. You should be in the forefront of ensuring that our catfish and our ‘gilbaka’ get back on the Ameri-can market,” Ali urged.
He added that the commerce association must aim for new heights and seek to assist small businesses through seminars to inform of the opportunities available to them.
“You should also be in the forefront of having seminars with our local farmers in telling them what opportunities exist in food supply and what they need to do to be part of those opportunities,” the Head of State said before challenging AmCham’s new president, attorney-at-law Devindra Kissoon, to have at least one US Food and Drug Administration-certified agro-processing facility in Guyana during his first year in office.
“When we do these things; then the ordinary people out there would see the necessity of what they term ‘sophisticated people’ in this room sitting; otherwise, we mean nothing to those people, none of us. Because when they look in this room, they will see a talk shop. But when they can see you out there fighting for something they know that can improve their lives, or give them an opportunity, then they feel a part of this,” President Ali underscored.
Following a visit to Guyana last year Septem-ber by former United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a commitment was given for the two countries to revisit the current export restriction on wild-caught catfish.
“We’ll work with you. We’ll put it through the U.S. regulatory process and the WTO (World Trade Organisation) review process, and I’m confident we can get a good outcome,” Pompeo had said.
To date the ban is still to be removed.
Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha just after taking office in 2020 committed to the resumption of the trade.
He had said that bilateral talks have been continuous. The talks had advanced and the fisheries department was preparing several documents to submit to the US authorities for review. The documents requested pertain to the processing and storage method for the fish after being caught, among other issues.
Mustapha earlier this year had explained that the Guyanese methodology of harvesting catfish is different from the US standards and as such they will have to put forward their case.
Capturing
“In Guyana, we are doing it very differently than in the United States because we are capturing these catfish in the wild rather [than] in the United States [where] they are rearing it and feeding it and selling it in in the markets. We are hoping that after this revision of our submission, hopefully, we can get this ban lifted,” he had said.
The minister noted too that his position has not changed from when he took office and he is still committed to having the export of catfish resumed.
The United States imposed a ban on catfish imports from Guyana and other non-compliant countries in September of 2017.
Guyana has fallen short of the US standards in three areas: (1) the presence of inspectors; (2) insufficient documentation detailing verification of each step in the sanitation and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP); and (3) insufficient documentation specifying how the industry manages adulterated (tainted) catfish products.
With the ban on the trade, the price for catfish species, specifically `gilbaka’, dropped significantly to $200 to $300 per pound in contrast to the $800 to $1000 it fetched when it was being exported to the United States.
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 1, 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 1, 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.
