Vieux Fort Fishing Complex.
A number of fishing boat owners in Vieux Fort have not received payments from the Saint Lucia Fish Marketing Corporation (SLFMC) for close to four months.
An arrangement to receive fuel from the Goodwill Fishermen’s Cooperative on presenting dockets from SLFMC has also been suspended. The fishers are now forced to find money, to purchase fuel to continue their business.
St. Lucia News Online (SNO) spoke with Curtis Thomas, a boat owner in Vieux Fort, who said that, the situation has affected over 40 boat owners and several fishermen.
“We normally sell to the St. Lucia Fish Market whenever we get fish from the fishermen and we haven’t been able to get pay. It is frustrating to both the fishermen and boat owners,” he said.
Thomas said he is forced to spend close to $3000 each day, to continue his business, without any guarantee that he will be paid soon. “Many boat owners cannot continue to send out their boats out anymore and many fishermen are not going out either,” he told SNO.
The Laborie Credit Union was providing subsidies to boat owners, but had to stop, because of cash flow problems. The Fishing Cooperative also kicked in and eventually had to stop too, because they were not getting payments from the SLFMC.
Thomas said the SLFMC owes boat owners between $14,000 and $20,000 each. Thomas said these payments are long overdue. He believes that the authorities need to step in to assist them, because they can no longer continue to carry on their businesses without cash.
SNO made contact with the SLFMC, the Goodwill Fishermen’s Cooperative and the Farmers Credit Union, but no one was available to comment. Contact was also made with the Chief Fisheries Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, but she too was unavailable.