Notice : Fish fair
Louma Jiggeen ñi
The forthcoming West African Fair for Artisanally Processed Fish promises to be educative and useful
For more details on the West African Fair for Artisanally Processed Fish, please visit http://www.icsf.net/ fishfair
Between 2 and 3 June 2001, the first West African Fair for Artisanally Processed Fish will be held at Place de l’Obélisque, in Dakar, Sénégal. Artisanal fish processors and traders from several countries in West Africa will interact with organizations working with, and supporting, artisanal fishing communities in the region. The fair will also attract policymakers from participating countries, representatives of international and sub-regional organizations working on fisheries-related issues in the region, and organizations and individuals working with fish-processing technologies.
Titled Louma Jiggeen ñi (which, in the Wolof language, means periodic market for women), the fair will be inaugurated by Senegal’s Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Transport on 2 June, to be followed immediately by a press conference.
Among the highlights of the fair will be a display of processed fish products from the region; exhibitions and demonstrations of improved methods of fish processing, preservation and storage; and information on support services (technology, market, credit and trade-related information) for artisanal processors and traders.
In West Africa, trade in such fish products is mainly through informal networks. These dynamic and diversified networks are constrained by poor transport infrastructure, problems at borders, and inadequate market facilities and information. It is to highlight these issues that the fair is being organized. Prior to the fair, a workshop will be held on the problems and prospects for the development of artisanal fish trade in West Africa. The workshop will bring together about 50 women processors and traders from the region.
On 1 June, the region’s policymakers will be invited to interact with workshop participants to understand the perspective of women fish traders and processors and to highlight the initiatives being taken to facilitate trade in artisanally processed fish products. Participants are expected from Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Conakry, Ghana, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Uganda.
Among the organizations participating are the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihood Programme in West Africa (SFLP) of FAO-DFID, Commission Sous Régionale des Pêches (CSRP), West African Association for the Development of Regional Fisheries (WADAF), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Institut de Technologie Alimentaire (ITA), Senegal.
The organizers of the fair are Collectif National des Pecheurs Artisanaux du Senegal (CNPS), the Centre de Recherches pour le Developpement des Technologies Intermediaires de Peche (CREDETIP) and the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), with the support of the FAO–DFID Sustainable Fisheries Livelihood Programme (SFLP).
