Guyanese have more access to fish per capita than other countries – Ramsammy tells Fisherfolk

Jul 02, 2012 News

---

By Leon Suseran
The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has told fishermen and women that more Guyanese have access to fish per capita as compared with other countries and world standards.

He was speaking at annual Fisherfolk Day observances at Rosignol, West Berbice on Friday, which was celebrated under the theme “The role of women in the fishing sector”.
According to the Minister, fishing is growing in importance as an export product, “but fishing continues to play its role as we continue to improve the food- security arrangements in our country.”
One of the United Nation’s and World Health Organisation’s (WHO) real concern is the accessibility to fishing products for people.
“Around the world, the average access to fish in terms of food for people is about 17kilograms of fish per capita (the global access to fish as food)”. The Agriculture Minister said that for Guyana, fish contributes “much more than that because the average Guyanese has access to 58 kilograms of fish per capita on an annual basis more than three times what the global citizens have in terms of their diet and in terms of their food and this demonstrates how important fish is to our people.”
However, on the flip-side, there are challenges to the industry, such as the international intrusion to fishing in developed countries.
He added that there was an era in Guyana when the international participation increased and began to dominate in terms of deep- sea fishing. He said that Guyana has to protect its fishing resources and “ensure that whilst we continue to open Guyana for investment, our people benefit from the resources…Our fishing resources, marine, inland and aquaculture belong to Guyana and even though we open them up for investment, the Guyanese people must be the true beneficiaries to that resource.”
If there are people coming to Guyana, he said, “we have to make sure that they do not take over these resources. Those coming to fish in Guyana must do so within the legal parameters, such as licensing and permits. More and more people are coming every day for licenses to fish in Guyana’s waters,” he added.
He added that Fisherfolk Day is not a day for fisherfolk alone but rather a day for all Guyanese “whether we are engaged in fishing or not, to celebrate the achievements of our fisherfolk”
“We have had some rough times, but Guyana does have a story that is worth telling— a country of slaves and indentured labourers, colonial manipulation, have grown up to be an independent, sovereign country.”
WOMEN IN FISHING
Some fisherfolk, he said, have done well while others continue to struggle. Commenting on the theme of the day’s observances, Ramsammy said that fishing is no longer the exclusive territory of men and boys.
“This has been a struggle and also a success story of women and girls, because among many of our fisherfolk, fishing has been a truly genuine family activity…and mostly the men went to sea but fishing has been an activity of the family.”
He recalled how women usually pitched in and assisted their fisherfolk husbands and sons especially when “they [the men] had a little too much [alcohol] or when they were sick.”
The real work of the women started when the boats would come in with loads of fish; “men had to repair the nets, the sails, and then it was the time for them to have a good bath and other activities…and the work of the women really started because it was the women who took the catch to the markets and brought the donkey carts and fetched the fish.”
Women, he said, play many roles, including being involved in the processing of fish in the fish- processing plants, “and many of these roles only represent an evolution of the roles of women…it does not represent the emergence of women in the sector; they were always there, their roles are changing and some are becoming entrepreneurs and taking charge.”
According to the Agriculture Minister, three per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Guyana is contributed by fishing and “we already hear how many people are engaged in fishing as employment and making a livelihood— at least 15,000 people are directly or indirectly making their living by fishing.”
Ramsammy stated that during the past few years, an average of 17,000 metric tonnes of fish products have been exported by Guyana at a value of about $10B (US$50M).
Fishing, he said, is truly, genuinely contributing to our development and to our effort to reduce and eliminate poverty “but it continues to play one of the most important roles in making Guyana a food- secured country— Guyana is one of those developing countries that can boast that we meet the demand for food and we are in fact, a net exporter of food.”

---

---