Business View Caribbean - August 2016 17
At a time when countries across the Caribbean re-
gion are faced with economic challenges, innovation
in one of its prime sectors -- the fisheries and aqua-
culture sector -- can spur the kind of growth needed
to help buttress the regional economy. However,
this kind of change won’t come overnight.
The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism
(CRFM) is working with member states from around
the region, as they prepare to take the first steps
in converting fish waste to fish wealth -- a change
that could multiply earnings from the sector. “Going
forward, we need to make the point that proper uti-
lization of fishery resources is not about increasing
production or increasing catches, it is more about
maximizing value of what we are now taking and
realizing the significant benefits that is possible by
focusing on value addition,” said Milton Haughton,
executive director of the CRFM.
Chief fisheries officers, senior fisheries officers, and
private sector representatives from 17 CRFM mem-
ber states learned about the application of the value
chain approach to the fisheries and aquaculture sec-
tor when they attended a weeklong workshop held
recently in Suriname.
“The objective was really to introduce participants
to the value chain approach in fisheries, and we
did this in collaboration with development partners
from Iceland and the Faculty of Food and Agricul-
ture at the University of the West Indies (Dr. Sharon
Hutchinson and Dr. Ardon Iton),” Haughton said.
Dadi Kristofersson, Ogmundur Knutsson, and Thor
Asgiersson, lecturers from United Nations Universi-
ty – Fisheries Training Program (UNU-FTP), based in
Iceland, traveled to Suriname to help lead the train-
ing. They also took with them a range of products
which Iceland makes from fish waste.
“Iceland has made tremendous advances in value
addition in fishers and they are perhaps the world’s
leaders,” the CRFM executive director said.
This success did not happen overnight -- it arose
out of a period of crisis, when the country was ex-
periencing a decline in its fisheries after the 1960s.
However, Haughton said, they were able to turn
things around largely by applying the value chain ap-
proach to make better use of their resources -- such
as improving quality, making beauty products from
fish guts, and adopting a market-driven approach to
fisheries. The Icelandic economy with a per capita
GDP of about US$45,000 is driven largely by the
fisheries sector.
