President James Michel visits Providence Industrial Estate
15-April-2015
Resolve ice shortage issue, say fishermen
The issue of not having enough ice to match demand is leaving Seychellois fishermen frustrated as their boats are anchored at ports and they make big losses each day they are not out at sea fishing.
When President James Michel visited the Fisheries Industrial Estate at Providence on Saturday many fishermen, among them Jimmy Cadeau, expressed their concerns about the lack of ice available.
“Let’s resolve the ice shortage issue once and for all,” Mr Cadeau told President Michel.
“The government has invested a lot in infrastructure development, but it is inexplicable that the SFA (Seychelles Fishing Authority) does not have an engineer to maintain the ice plants. We have more boats and more fishermen, but we cannot leave port if we don’t have ice,” added Mr Cadeau.
President Michel reiterated Mr Cadeau’s views in an interview given after his visit by saying: “A lot of people have invested in buying boats to do different types of fishing but what we have seen is that there are not enough facilities on land to support that sector. This is where SFA and the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture should put a lot of emphasis in building more ice plants as this is a major issue that has been brought to my attention today (Saturday). The fishermen want to go fishing but there is no ice. This is an issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.”
SFA acting chief executive Vincent Lucas told Seychelles NATION that the SFA was only recently donated an 8-tonne ice plant with Chinese technology and that a Belgian company working with ISPC will soon install it adjacent to the existing ice-plant.
He added that the proposed extension of the Providence port will bring more facilities among those a 10-tonne ice plant for local fishermen, making it easier for them to contribute in the development of the Blue Economy concept.
The Providence port is expected to be extended by 300 metres but this will depend on the fund made available by the Japanese government.
With the proposed extension of the Providence port, a number of businesses supposed to start in the area demarcated for the port extension have been stalled and President Michel has instructed officials of the Ministry for Fisheries and Agriculture and the SFA to meet the businessmen and discuss with them about whether they would like to move to another location.
As for Gaetan Payet, who exports sea cucumbers to Hong Kong, he told the President he has been waiting for more than one year for approval to exchange a plot of land at Bel Ombre for another plot at Providence to extend his business by the name of Providence Sea Cucumber company.
Mr Payet explained that he employs four workers and has 10 casual workers depending on the workload and that the working space has become too small and even dangerous.
Like President Michel has often said local entrepreneurs should be given all the necessary information and there must be complete change of mindset on the part of officials to make things move faster as businesses bring wealth to the country.
Asked what his ministry is doing to remedy the ice shortage issue, Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Wallace Cosgrow said they are waiting for approval from the Planning Authority to install the 8-tonne ice plant.
He added that the SFA, which operates all ice plants on Mahé and Praslin, has identified a contractor who has done an inventory on all ice plants and work will soon start on repairing them.
“New ice plants will also be installed in some designated locations. And in the future, we have to make sure that this problem does not arise, this is why we are also looking into the possibility of getting the private sector to join in ice production and distribution,” said Minister Cosgrow.
On the fish processing plant which was officially opened by President Michel in August 2014 but is still not operational, Minister Cosgrow explained that the nine businessmen have been told to delay starting their operation because the facilities have some drainage problems, thus not meeting international standard.
“A consultant has made a report on the facilities and we will decide whether to bring a contractor on site to do the work. We will later decide if we will be taking legal action against the original contractor for not delivering up-to-standard work. We are also working with the businesses on the interior plans of the units to be submitted to the Planning Authority for approval so that they can start their fish processing businesses. By the end of the year everyone should have set up their business which should be up and running,” noted Mr
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