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| Suriname's Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Dr. Kermechand Raghoebarsing. (Photo: Caribbean360) | |
PARAMARIBO, Suriname, May 12, 2008 - Regional fishermen reeling from increasing fishing costs due to rising fuel prices will have their cause taken up at the CARICOM level.
The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) - the CARICOM body responsible for developing, managing and conserving fisheries resources in the region - has agreed to carry fishers' call for a reprieve from rising diesel costs to the region's ministers of agriculture before month-end.
This decision was taken on the final day of the CRFM's Sixth Meeting of the Caribbean Fisheries Forum, which was held from May 8 to 9 in Paramaribo, Suriname.
A post-forum meeting of the CRFM executive agreed to ensure the matter is tabled before agricultural officials at the preparatory meeting for the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) scheduled for May 21 in Guyana. This is in a bid to see it placed on the agenda of the 27th special meeting of COTED two days later, which is this time being devoted to agricultural issues.
The CRFM decision follows on the heels of cries last week by the Suriname Seafood Association that at least 7,000 industry jobs in that country were in jeopardy given that about three-quarters of Surinamese fishing vessels remained high and dry because owners and operators could no longer afford to fuel them for fishing trips.
And Surinamese fishers have not been the only ones in the region to cry out. Since the end of April, boat owners in Barbados have been sending distress signals that their businesses were on the verge of collapse following a near doubling in the price of diesel after that island's government announced it could no longer afford to subsidise rising fuel costs.
Suriname is now the chair of the CRFM and it is expected that it will be that country's Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Dr. Kermechand Raghoebarsing, who will be the one to approach his regional counterparts in the Guyana meetings to garner support for some initiative that could offer an ease to regional fishers.
The fisheries sector has been recognised by regional officials as strategically important to CARICOM given that it directly and indirectly employs over 142,000 persons. It is reported to bring in over US$150 million per year from export while saving the region at least three times as much in foreign exchange.
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