ECONOMY-CUBA: In Search of Partners to Develop Fisheries

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Feb 24 2000 (IPS) - Cuba is looking for foreign partners to help develop its fishing industry, as part of a 10-year programme designed to achieve more rational exploitation of the island’s stocks and to increase aquaculture production of freshwater and saltwater species.

Experts at Cuba’s Fishing Industry Ministry stressed that the “strategic priority” was to draw foreign investors that would bring in advanced technologies for exploiting the island’s fisheries.

In the case of fish farms, the aim is to boost production of saltwater and freshwater fish, as well as prawns.

Industry authorities hope to attract foreign investment, especially for developing new shrimp farms on a 16,000 hectare area that has an ideal climate for year-round production.

Cuba began its first shrimp-farming experiments in 1981, and now has 2,200 hectares of pools with an annual output of 2,000 to 2,500 tonnes.

Experts say Cuba’s water resources are unpolluted, with salinity levels ideal for shrimp-farming, and disease-free shrimp. The island nation’s prawn industry also has highly-trained workers and infrastructure for production, processing and marketing.

Various sources estimate that the maximum sustainable fish catch in Cuba is 80,000 tonnes per year, and point out that this level has already been reached, which means the country must seek alternative technologies to increase the sector’s production level and profits.

Asian, European and Canadian experts are currently advising Cuba in a programme begun in 1998 for farming salt-water fish species that, if successful, could reach an annual production level of 100,000 tonnes – the equivalent of some 500 million dollars.

The island nation’s ideal climatic and geographic conditions allow species to grow twice as fast as they do in Europe.

Analysts point out that at the Cabanas fish farm on Cuba’s northwest coast, the dorado, at just eight months of age, weighs more than 300 grams, and reaches marketable weight (400 g) by 11 months. In Europe, the species takes at least 20 months to reach marketable weight.

The Cuban Fishing Industry Ministry is also fomenting freshwater fish production. Total output last year amounted to 80,000 tonnes, 10,000 tonnes more than the previous year.

In 1997, the European Union (EU) certified the quality of Cuban fishing and processing sites, a requirement for exporting to the EU, one of Cuba’s principal seafood markets.

Cuba’s top fishing industry export is still lobster, at 10,000 tonnes last year, targeted entirely for the international market, tourism and the government network of stores selling products only in dollars.

Live lobster, which is sold by size and weight, brings in an average of 4,000 to 5,000 dollars per tonne on the world market. Cuba’s main clients for lobsters are Japan (28 percent), France (24 percent), Spain (19 percent), Italy (15 percent) and Canada (10 percent).

The programme for developing the sector over the next 10 years also includes promoting processed fish products and introducing higher-yield, species and the species in highest demand among consumers.

Cuba plans to strengthen its joint fishing ventures with several countries and to step up repairs and remodeling of its fishing fleet.

United Nations agencies like the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and UN Development Programme (UNDP) have been key to the development of Cuba’s fishing industry.

FAO reports show that in 1996, fish farms accounted for 20 percent of the world’s total fish yield, most of which consisted of freshwater species.