Prudence N. Barnes, Contributor
Roderick Francis, managing director of B&D Trawling Limited at 1 Port Royal Street, Kingston. - PHOTO BY SUSAN SMITH
AFTER NEARLY four years of being denied health certification to export conch due to a drawn-out legal battle with DYC Fisheries Limited, B&D Trawling Ltd., formerly one of the biggest players in the industry, resumed its conch export business in May.
B & D managing director Roderick 'Bunny' Francis, while declining to give a dollar value to his output, told The Financial Gleaner that the company had already shipped over 124,000 pounds of conch to markets in Miami and to the French Antilles. Another container with some 44,000 pounds was to be shipped shortly, Mr. Francis said.
While the Ministry of Agriculture could not give an overall figure on the value of the conch industry, one expert said it "is very lucrative" with conch worth between "US$5 and $6 per pound on the international market." The 2004 Social and Economic Survey puts the overall value of the fisheries exports (fish, crustaceans and molluscs) at US$7.2 million.
The reinstatement of B&D Trawling's ability to receive health export certification follows a ruling in May 2005 by the Court of Appeal which lifted the injunction preventing the issuing of export health certification to the Port Royal Street-based B&D, finding that three controversial shipments of conch at the centre of issue, were properly disposed of in Mexico, and had not been allowed to re-enter the supply in Jamaica as claimed in the suit filed against the ministry and B&D.
A spate of suits and counter suits began after December 2001, when three shipments of conch exported to the French Antilles by B&D were alleged to have been exported in contravention of agreed standards between Jamaica and the European Union, particularly the agreement that products exported to EU countries must be processed in European Union-approved plants. At the time, only two such plants existed: Ton-Rick Enterprises and DYC Fisheries.
DYC Shipping Limited filed injunctions preventing the Ministry of Agriculture from issuing health export certification to B&D Trawling and other players in the industry, coming out of the issue surrounding the shipments, citing the possibility of contamination of local supplies from the shipments that were not fully accounted for.
In July 2002, the Supreme Court ruled against DYC, giving the ministry the nod to resume issuing licence to the other players in the sector. But the case against B&D would drag on for another two years.
CANCELLED CERTIFICATE
The Ministry of Agriculture had cancelled the health certification of B&D for the shipments in question and ordered that the shipments be confiscated by the authorities in Martinique, to prevent entry into the distributive trade, and that "the consignment be immediately returned to Jamaica, to prevent placement in the European Community". B&D failed to return the full consignment exported, as requested by the ministry, and later there were charges that the shipment could have been allowed to return and contaminated local supplies.
