PARAMARIBO, Suriname – Suriname is moving to establish a multi-million dollar fish processing company with production mainly for the export market.
The locally based fish processing company, Suvveb, says plans are well advanced for the establishment of tuna canning plant where tuna will be processed.
Suvveb’s managing-director Udo Karg, says plant being established with foreign partners, will be an investment in excess of US$10 million.
He said had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic and the situation in Ukraine, the plans would have been further advanced.
“Every investment in the fish sector is primarily aimed at export. The local market is too small to deal with more than one or two serious players. The investment never pays for itself,” says Karg, who is also chairman of the Suriname Seafood Association (SSA).
He said tuna catches in Surinamese waters have fallen by more than half.
“Currently, since COVID-19 and now due to the situation in Ukraine resulting in high fuel prices, less than half of what was normally caught is landed.”
The most recent data available on tuna fishing in Suriname indicates an increase with catches of yellowfin tuna increasing from 1,943 in 2012 to 2,429 in 2014.
But observers note that the Surinamese fishing sector is confronted with various challenges and threats. They warn that illegal practices by Surinamese fishermen in the waters of French Guiana pose a threat to the country’s fish exports and if the illegality does not stop, the country risks being blacklisted by the European Union.
Earlier this week, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Minister, Parmanand Sewdien expressed said that in the past, authorities in French Guiana have dealt harshly with illegal fishermen.
Boats, nets and engines were destroyed on the spot without any form of trial and the perpetrators were jailed for at least two months. For some time now France has acted more leniently and equipment and boats are no longer destroyed.
