US bans Gilbacker, other fish

…move seen as part of efforts to protect U.S industry

The local fishing industry has been dealt a severe blow as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has stopped the export of all Siluriformes fish and fish products (catfish species) from Guyana, effective March 1.

According to industry sources, the decision affects over 90% of all fish exports to the U.S and over 70% of the overall fish export market. The U.S decision means that apart from the catfish, hassar, cuirass and gilbacker can no longer be exported to the U.S.

Chief Fisheries Officer, Denzil Roberts, told Kaieteur News that Guyana received notification from the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) some time ago.

He stated that the FSIS concluded that the local Siluriformes fish and fish products inspection system is not equivalent to the U.S. inspection system.

“This was determined after we, through the competent authority, the Veterinary Public Health Unit of the Ministry of Health, was not able to satisfy the requirements demanded by the USA,” Roberts stated.

Guyana was unable able to comply with several U.S. conditions mainly due to factors such modifying inspection procedures and outdated regulations, including those governing fisheries products, which Guyana is in the process of revising.

“We are currently working on trying to fix these deficiencies among which would be modifying the Inspection Procedures manual and some modifications in our regulations. It is expected that Fisheries Department and the Veterinary Public Health working together will be able to address these deficiencies and request a review of the inspection system,” Roberts noted.

Industry officials explained that starting last year, the U.S. rolled out a series of new rules and regulations that specifically targeted catfish exporters. Initially, the export of smoked catfish was stopped.

This decision left exporters with only one option which was to export frozen catfish. Currently, there are eight plants certified locally to process catfish.

The majority of fish and fish products exported from Guyana are sold mostly in U.S. states where a high volume of Guyanese and Caribbean nationals reside.

U.S. PROTECTIONISM

Any importing country can demand that all exporting countries meet the conditions set out to ensure continued market access, but in the case of the United States, the recent move is being seen as part of an overall plan to significantly reduce catfish imports.

The American catfish industry is concentrated in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas. These markets have been steadily losing share to imports predominately from Vietnam.

According to the New York Times, U.S catfish industry became concerned since imports at one time accounted for about 75 percent of the market. U.S catfish farmers approached the then Barack Obama administration to implement stricter rules to govern the industry.

Essentially, U.S lawmakers agreed to shift the inspection of foreign and U.S produced catfish from the FDA to a more rigorous programme at the USDA. This change became effective March 2016.

Forbes characterized the shifting of the responsibility of the inspection agency as extreme financial waste that has been driven entirely by political posturing under the guise of food safety.

The USDA regulates meat, poultry and egg products, all things that have been traditionally considered to be high risk foods through a costly process that typically involves some type of continuous inspection. The FDA, on the other hand, regulates all other types of food including all seafood through the use of a risk based approach to inspection.

This means that the FDA spends more time and money inspecting high risk food versus low risk food.