MONROVIA – The Director-General of the National
Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) has disclosed that all is
set for the setting up and subsequent operation of a fisheries competent
laboratory (Post-Harvest and Quality Assurance) as the state of the art
Laboratory equipment has arrived in Monrovia under the Icelandic
project.
Mrs. Emma Metieh Glassco pointed out that Liberia is a coastal state with the second longest coastline in the sub-region next to Nigeria. She said “although Liberia is very rich in high value commercial quantities of both demersal and pelagic fish stocks, the country has lost its exporting powers to international fish markets due to the failure to set up a competent laboratory for the purpose of testing and certification of fish products. As a result, there is a huge revenue leakage”.
Mrs. Glassco mentioned that NaFAA has also demonstrated its
willingness to adopt ISO- International Organization for
Standardization’s protocols of which will be laid out in its updated
2020 regulations and has gone one step further by ratifying
international treaties such as the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA),
an FAO legal instrument in an effort to get the required accreditation
either from USA, EU, UK among others for export.
The Liberian fisheries Expert further mentioned that the competent Laboratory when completed will actually be first of its kind since the 1970s.
A NaFAA press release issued Thursday April 9, 2020 quotes the
Director-General as saying “once the lab is accredited, fishery products
for export from Liberia, does not need to be routed through second
member countries such as Ghana and Cote D’IVOIRE availing an opportunity
for direct revenue earnings from exports thereby triggering at least
three times increment or more in its current revenue generation”.
Madam Glassco assured that the sophisticated equipment will be
installed, managed and operated for couple of months by Icelandic
consultants (after the COVID 19 pandemic subsides) recruited for the
purpose of this project. She noted that the Icelandic government has
also provided six months training for laboratory technicians to help
operate the laboratory after the testing and trials period.
The NaFAA Boss disclosed that quite recently, about six of the
staffers returned from Iceland equipped with both theoretical and
technical skills to apply in the day to day operations of the Fisheries
Competent Laboratory.
Making more disclosure, the fisheries boss said the Fisheries
Competent Laboratory will be jointly operated by NaFAA and the Liberia
National Standard Laboratory, when passed and signed into law for the
purpose of uniformity and coherence of national protocols and set
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) which will be laid out by an MoU to
be signed by heads of both institutions.
Meanwhile, the Management of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) is extending profound thanks and appreciation to the President of the Republic of Liberia, H.E George Manneh Weah for his support as well as development partners such as the Icelandic government and the World Bank for their immense contributions towards the transformation of the Liberian fisheries sector, a sector with enormous untapped potentials.
Source:https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/liberia-nafaa-set-to-open-fisheries-competent-laboratory/
