The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance (BCFA) president yesterday said he was optimistic that the customary target of five million pounds of crawfish would be hit this season, telling Tribune Business there was no trickle down effect for Bahamian fishermen as exporters were securing the lion’s share of revenues.

“Judging from the information we have got from fisherman who have been out setting their traps, they say that in some areas they have been seeing a lot of spiny lobsters, but in some areas the yield is very low. That could be because  there has been some poaching going on or that those areas have even overfished,” said Adrian LaRoda.

“What happens is you may see a lot of fish, but they are just not a harvestable product.  There are other parts of the fishing grounds where it looks like it could be a good season but, of course, it’s too early to tell. The yield per boat may not be as much as expected.”

According to Mr LaRoda,  while the industry did not meet the customary five million pounds of crawfish last year, he hoped the target could be attained this season, which begins on August 1.

“We are pursuing our customary target of  5 million pounds of crawfish. Hopefully this season we will be able to get that,” Mr LaRoda said.

“We didn’t get it last year . Historically, we have found that we normally yield 5-5.5 million pounds per year. In essence that has become the traditional number that fishermen try to meet. I know the year before, while we did meet the five million pound target, because that was at the height of the recession - while our yield was good - our take was not as good because you didn’t get as much for your product.  There was not really a great demand for luxury items such as lobster ,so while our yield was good the demand was not there.”

He added: “We are hoping that things improve this year, and that the demand would be greater for the product. I think in western Europe the demand is still there, and we should get good demand form that region. It may be bit difficult in eastern. Western Europe is always the preferred market.”

Mr LaRoda said fishermen were often-times at the mercy of exporters with regards to selling their product.

“The thing is, a lot of this stuff doesn’t trickle down to the fishermen. You find that the exporters are the ones who get the lion’s share of export revenue. A lot of times you are at the mercy of exporters. They are not going to give you what they are going to be getting for the product after it is exported,” said Mr LaRoda.

CARICOM’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN), in a bulletin last year on the region’s crawfish industry and trade volumes, noted that the Bahamas was its “top exporting member state” based on 2009 data, accounting for 86 per cent - some $60.372 million of its total $70.2 million crawfish exports for that year -even though this nation’s prices are 20 per cent higher than the global average.