RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Lo­cal crab catch­ers are feel­ing the pinch of poor sales af­ter the Gov­ern­ment is­sued a ban on the im­por­ta­tion of processed crab meat and live crabs from Venezuela. Since the ban, the crab catch­ers from Wood­land, Oropouche, Moru­ga, and Em­ba­cadere com­plained that their sales had dried up.

Vin­od Ram­sawak, who sold crabs from Ma­yaro, said af­ter wait­ing for six hours in the heat, all he sold was $100 worth of crabs.

“Things are tough. I want to sell these crabs so I can make up mon­ey to buy my chil­dren’s school books and uni­forms,” Ram­sawak said.

He added that his crabs came from Or­toire, Ma­yaro and were not im­port­ed from Venezuela but even af­ter plead­ing with po­ten­tial cus­tomers, no sales were forth­com­ing.

Asked to dif­fer­en­ti­ate lo­cal crabs from Venezue­lan crabs, Ram­sawak said both crabs look the same.

How­ev­er, he said the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries must do a de­tailed in­ves­ti­ga­tion on the crabs be­fore is­su­ing a ban.

An­oth­er ven­dor Gob­in Ma­haraj who sold crabs on Gulf View Link Road said his crabs came from Moru­ga. We go down there to catch them but since I came out at 7 am, I have not sold a sin­gle bunch,” Ma­haraj com­plained.

As news of the ban spread, a group of crab catch­ers from Ota­heite held a meet­ing with the pres­i­dent of the Crab­catch­ers and Oys­ters As­so­ci­a­tion Robert Nand­lal. Nand­lal com­mend­ed the Gov­ern­ment on ban­ning Venezue­lan crabs but said some pro­tec­tion must be giv­en to lo­cal catch­ers.

“If there are a bac­te­ria we do not want those crabs con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing ours. We want our lo­cal crab catch­ers to get a fair dol­lar when the day comes,” Nand­lal said, adding that lo­cal crabs sell for $100 per bunch. A bunch com­pris­es of six to eight crabs de­pend­ing on the size. Venezue­lan crabs are sold for $20 for a bunch of six.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Clarence Ramb­harat said peo­ple must be cau­tious about whom they buy their crabs from.

Say­ing the US Food and Drug Ad­min­is­tra­tion had found a bac­te­ria in fresh crab meat from Venezuela, which caus­es cholera, Ramb­harat said the crab meat re­ferred to by the FDA is processed and pack­aged and the Min­istry of Trade had stopped is­su­ing li­cences for the im­por­ta­tion of the prod­uct. Not­ing the on­go­ing il­lic­it trade be­tween Venezuela and T&T in the sale of live crabs, Ramb­harat said con­sumers must be mind­ful of the health risks.

Last week, the FDA re­port­ed that 12 peo­ple in the US had been sick­ened by the bac­te­ria, vib­rio para­haemolyti­cus, found in crab meat from Venezuela.