Shrimp exports approved for European market
Over the next few years it is expected to overtake citrus as Belize’s largest export. Earlier this week News 5’s Jacqueline Woods visited a shrimp farm near Ladyville where the latest harvest was being processed for shipment. What she discovered was that not only is production growing, but that the market is becoming more diversified.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Each year, millions of pounds of shrimp are processed inside the plant at Nova Companies Belize Limited. Grown in ponds situated to the back of the compound, most of the production is exported to the United States. It’s big business, but the work is costly and involves meeting a host of stringent sanitary requirements. Today, the shrimp farm is the largest in the country. Juan Dorado, who has been with the company since its inception, says it’s a remarkable success that took years of hard work to achieve.
Juan Dorado, General Manager, Nova Company Belize Ltd.
“It has developed ten fold or more. We started in 1989 with just four ponds, today we are at ninety-two ponds of twenty-five acres each. So we’ve grown quite a bit over the last thirteen years.”
During that time, the company, which employs five hundred Belizeans, has also been trying to tap into the European market, but without much success. That is, until September. One month ago, The Belize Agricultural Health Authority, BAHA, notified the company that it had met local and international food safety regulations based on sanitary audits that were conducted by BAHA.
Honorio Duran, Quality Control Mgr., Nova
“Today we are proud to say the we have both Hazap certification and BAHA certification, the number one plant in the shrimp industry as well as the food processing industry in Belize. This Plant, whatever we are going to see throughout this plant, are the regulation that we have met and we have become certified.”
The shrimp goes through a battery of tests after it is harvested. Much of the work takes place inside the processing plant. There the workers busily prepare, clean and packaged the shrimp. The process is important since the shrimps are grown and harvested in a controlled environment and are vulnerable to a number of chemical hazards.
Honorio Duran
“You know that we are working in ponds with controlled environment and there will be pathogenic and microbiological activity going on in these ponds. Because of these, we need to take that into consideration that at any point or other, we will come across these hazards. So there are preventative measures that have to be taken for that not to reach the processing plant.”
Since the company received its certification to sell on the European market, it has been looking forward to making its first transatlantic shipment. It’s not certain when that will be, but the company hopes that the sale will be made by the end of the year. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
Nova has also established several shrimp farms in southern Belize and has plans for further expansion.
