The Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Reginald Austrie, announced that the Japanese government will be restoring the fishery complexes in Roseau, Portsmouth, and Marigot. The fisheries were destroyed by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and had remained redundant since then.
Minister Austrie said delegates of the Japanese government will be in Dominica on August 18 to sign the contract for the projects. He said companies must still submit their bids for the project, and so he cannot disclose the actual sum to be paid the Japanese for the project.
“But I can say to you, it is quite substantial, and it will modernize our fishing sector because what we intend to do is to make them more processing-friendly,” Austrie said. “We are now catching enough fish in Dominica to feed ourselves, and with the investment, we’re going to be making in the fishing sector, we’ll have enough fish to export to other countries.”
The minister said the government will build the fishing facilities in a way that will enable the processing and selling of processed fish. He said select fishermen will receive up to USD$11,000 (about EC$30,000) to reconstruct their fishing boats.
“We’are also hoping that we’ll be able to develop a boat-building industry, and we’re equally making provisions under that project to support our boat builders,” he said.
Dr. Reginald Thomas, a permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, noted that the ministry will be committed to establishing more plant nurseries this year to boost crops cultivation.
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