August 14, 2013

Mexico sees increased shrimp export opportunities to US

The US has permitted Mexican producers to continue shrimp exports to its market, which totalled 26,182 tonnes in 2012, including farmed types, valued at US$251 million.

On July 26, the State Department of the US reported in the Federal Register it has concluded that Mexico has adopted such initiatives comparable in effectiveness to the US programme to reduce the by-catch of sea turtles in shrimp fisheries.

The criterion is based on three critical elements: regulation or legislation; the implementation of the law, reflected in the good use of turtle excluder devices (TEDs); and training.

Since 1996, the use of the TEDs is mandatory for all shrimp vessels, in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, that employ the trawling system.

The head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (Sagarpa), Enrique Martinez Martinez, the National Commission of Aquaculture and Fisheries (Conapesca), the Navy Secretariat (Semar), and the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa), have encouraged solid training activities, including labour competency certification on the TEDs.

Sagarpa indicated that these actions are aimed at skippers, fishing chiefs and crew members of shrimp boats, and cover topics related to design, construction, installation and operation of the TEDs. In addition, it stated that the Mexican government has reiterated its commitment to continue working with the shrimp industry "to implement agreements that guarantee the full development of a sustainable and socially responsible fishing."