The pool of people in the country certified as fish handlers and processors is expected to increase upon completion of a four-month CVQ Level 1 and Level 2 training programme in Fish Handling.

The programme by the St. Mark’s Women in Action Incorporated, an NGO grouping based in the parish of St. Mark is being coordinated by the National Training Agency (NTA) with donor funding from the Grenada Sustainable Development Trust Fund Inc.

REPORT:

Information dispatched from the halls of Government shows that over the next four months ten participants enrolled in the programme from the parish of St. Mark will be exposed to hazard identification and risk control, hygiene procedures, cleaning work area and equipment, applying food handling and safety practices with seafood and other aquatic products, among other areas dealing with fish and/or shell fish.

This, as well as salting or curing fish or shellfish and controlling the fish/shellfish smoking process.

During an orientation recently, much emphasis was placed on the importance of the exercise, with the MP for the area, Dr. Clarice Modeste-Curwen expressing her desire to see lasting results through the creation of sustainable livelihoods, on the understanding that the fishing community is well placed with a local market for value-added production.

Programme Officer, Abi-Gail Oliver, representing the Grenada Sustainable Development Trust Fund Inc., indicated that some 10,000 US dollars is pumped into funding the programme geared at building capacity in the fishing industry and thus enabling sustainable livelihoods.

The Trust Fund will provide monitoring and evaluation of the training to ensure its successfully executed and that participants emerge knowledgeable, certified and marketable, especially at a time where there are new and emerging technologies and trends in the market to remain sustainable