US still reviewing ban on importing Guyana’s catfish

US still reviewing ban on importing Guyana’s catfish

The United States Department of Agriculture is still reviewing the five-year long ban on the importation of catfish from Guyana, outgoing US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah Ann-Lynch said on Tuesday.

During a radio interview, the Ambassador admitted that the review will take some time, but said that there has been constant contact between the relevant US agencies and their Guyanese counterparts on the issue.

“The catfish agreement is still under review, the US department of Agriculture, specifically the Food Safety inspection service. What we have been doing at the Embassy in Georgetown is being able to put them—the FSIS and the appropriate counterparts in Guyana in dialogue so that they can get the right paperwork across the finish line,” the outgoing US ambassador said.

Back in November 2017, Guyana, along with several other countries, was temporarily banned from exporting catfish to the US. The country had fallen short in several requirements to meet US standards.

 The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) instituted the ban on catfish species from Guyana, inclusive of hassar, cuirass and gillbacker, after the country failed to comply with the new requirements.

For Guyana, the issues included the lack of inspectors along with insufficient documentation detailing the sanitation and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) process, along with how the industry manages adulterated catfish products.

Exporters of catfish were required by the US Food and Safety Inspection Services (FSIS) to provide documentation to verify that their inspection system was in keeping with US standards. This protocol came into effect in 2016.

Exporters here were given a transitional period to update their regulations and provide the relevant documentation.

The Failure to do this within the timeline saw the United States imposing the ban on catfish imports from Guyana in September 2017.

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