The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) STDF-134 regional project training, which is organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly matters, will seal up today at the Kairaba Beach Hotel in Kololi, after five days' intensive discussions, deliberations, reviewing and national assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of the competent authorities to improve the fish trade performance of selected African countries including The Gambia, Benin, Sierra Leone and Senegal.

The core objectives of the training include developing the capacity built by other project efforts within the countries' competent authorities and industry, in order that SPS issues are well understood and do not constrain the export of fish and fishery products, as well as to deliver training in safe fish handling to the beach level. During the official opening ceremony of the five-day confab on Monday, the minister of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly matters, Lamin Kaba Bajo, said fish and fishery products control systems are facing some constraints in the respective countries. Inspite of efforts to address these constraints, he noted, technical capacity in both the industry and in the competent authorities, inspection services and support laboratories are still inadequate and need to be augmented.

Dr Babagana Ahmadu, the FAO representative in The Gambia, also attached huge importance to the fisheries sector, stating that an FAO report has established that approximately 75% of the global fish production is used directly for human consumption. During a presentation on The Gambia fish production, Maurzio Perri, an international consultant, said the decrease in industrial fish production is largely associated with the decline in the number of licensed fishing trawlers. He told the gathering that at present, between 25 to 45 fishing trawlers are licensed in the country annually.

While deliberating on the fish technical and trade database for Sierra Leone and The Gambia, a delegate from Sierra Leone observed that Africa is endowed with healthy and fresh fish with powerful fish factories, which, he said need more improvement. However, it is expected that at the end of the training today, an efficient system of information dissemination on SPS and other trade issues pertinent to fisheries will be established. This will be done by collection and digitilisation of information and its assemblling into a comprehensive technical and trade data base, which will include the fishery products legislation and regulations of the participating countries, the Codex standards as well as codes of practice and the current regulations of the main importing countries, including other useful information such as tariffs, statistics, market prices and news.

Minister Bajo further told the gathering that there are excellent prospects and opportunities for increasing export of fish and fishery products through improvements in the food safety and quality systems; thus increasing revenue to national budgets. "Our governments need the support of our development partners to overcome some of the constraints for affecting access of our fisheries products to international markets especially the European Union," he said.

In The Gambia, however, Minister Bajo expounded that there is a process of national coordinated efforts at the level of the National CODEX and SPS committee to bring about an improved, unified and well coordinated national food control authority and system in which the fisheries sector is also actively involved. This aspiration and the activities being undertaken he said, are also a great opportunity to improve the sanitary control of fish and fishery products and as well an avenue for improved trade performance for The Gambia.  

Minister Bajo then assured the FAO Gambia office of Government's unreserved commitment to providing them with the enabling environment for the operations in the country.