Liberia is keen on grabbing a slice of the lucrative European Union fish market, and has subsequently struck a deal with Ghana’s standards body to facilitate the certification and testing of its seafood products destined for countries in the E.U.
The Liberian Ministry of Commerce and its state fishing agency, the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), recently signed a memorandum of understanding on technical cooperation with the Ghana Standards Authority to temporarily carry out the certification of fish and fish products on behalf of the Liberia National Standards Laboratory.
The agreement will be implemented alongside the training of staff from Liberia’s Ministry of Commerce to the standards of the E.U.’s Registered Export System of certification of origin of goods as the country works to improve the quality and volume of its fisheries and aquaculture.
According to the NaFAA, two of the trainees are in Brussels for the training program and are expected to come back to Liberia to strengthen the planned introduction of the certification scheme in the country.
Liberia is separately working with the E.U. under a five-year sustainable fisheries partnership agreement signed in 2015, which allows 16 Spanish and 12 French purse-seiners to fish for tuna and tuna-like species such as yellowfin tuna, bonito, and marlin in the Liberian waters at an annual fee of EUR 650,000 (USD 720,132). This deal also includes six Spanish long-line vessels.
Although the Liberian continental shelf has capacity to yield 180,000 metric tons (MT) of fish, the current total production is estimated to be between just 10,000 to 15,000 MT.
Photo courtesy of Liberia's National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority
