Guyana hopeful of US lifting catfish ban soon; US authorities examining new health and safety documents

Guyana is optimistic that an almost seven-year ban on the exportation of catfish to the United States will be lifted, as the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service conducts another review of documents submitted by Guyana.

In 2017, Guyana was among several countries that were banned from exporting catfish to the US over safety concerns.

Since then, it has been an uphill task to get the ban lifted.

However, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, on Tuesday, said the Government remains optimistic as it continues to provide the US with additional documentation to support the exportation of catfish.

“We are working with the United States to remove the ban on our catfish there, we are working very closely with them. We recently submit again, some new documents that they are going through and I am very confident optimistic that we can get the ban released as soon as possible,” the Agriculture Minister said.

On the sidelines of a Peace Corps event at the Umana Yana today, US Ambassador Nicole Theriot confirmed that additional documents were received by the US Department of Agriculture in May from Guyana, and the review is underway.

“The US Department of Agriculture has a specific office that handles all requests for export of products such as catfish, shellfish, vegetables, any sort of fresh products and there is a very clear, very strict process that must be followed. Any country in the world that wishes to export to the United States, whatever product it is, must follow these guidelines and Guyana is quite advanced in this process. In fact, in May, they returned the last request for information, and so, its kind of been going back and forth, and right now, it is back with the US, so the ball is in our court, to review the responses we received on May,” Ambassador Theriot told reporters.

She said the approval process for the importation of fresh foods into the US is a rigorous one, but is also crucial to ensure the health and safety of American citizens.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have a timeline for that because it really does depend on how long it takes them to go through the responses but I am very confident that we will get there. I know it seems like a really long time, but when you are talking about the health and safety of your citizens, you have to be incredibly careful, and that’s why it is such a long and complicated process. But I promise you Guyana is getting close to the end and I think we will be there soon,” the US Ambassador said.

The Ambassador said if there is need for additional information, the US will make that known, however, if the information is satisfactory, the country will be guided on the next steps.