This is a discussion that talks about one of St Helena’s richest assets which is fishing.
PQ trading St Helena has been endorsed as the preferred investor to undergo fish processing on St Helena.
Some of the local community and local fishers are not happy with the proposal offered, they have vocally expressed their views on how the process to select an investor has been carried out and as a result the SHCFA made a decision to launched a petition to call on the Government to terminate the procurement. (The online petition can be found here)
If we rewind back to earlier this year, a press release was published to offer the opportunity for anyone to submit proposals to invest into the Islands fisheries.
After many months of monitoring the timeline of this process, it seems that this is a challenging task for both official’s, preferred investors and the commercial fishermen of St Helena.
During the time it took to try an establish a solution to find the right investor, the local fish processing factory was closed and that decision caused some disruption and created many impacts to the fishermen’s lively hood and the community of St Helena.
Although many press releases have been published by the SHCFA there has been no open media discussions with officials or PQ trading about the proposal.
Shortly after the petition was launched on Friday the 24th July, I invited PQ trading to speak with the St Helena podcast to have an open discussion around some of the topics that is causing concerns with in the St Helena community.
The invite was accepted and today’s discussion with the director of PQ trading explains and expands on many areas of fish processing in St Helena.
I believe this is the first time that any one from PQ trading has joined the conversation openly to talk about the proposal and what’s recommended and how St Helena will benefit from the investment.
Note: that I have no commercial invested interest in fishing on St Helena today nor do I have any professional skills in the industry but I believe it’s important that great communication is key to any partnering in commercial ventures. However, my only preferred result is a successful future for the industry, meeting all legal and best practises while conducting sustainable fishing and the results improves the lively hoods of my fellow saints that live on the Island.
I hope you find this conversation interesting and engaging comments are welcome.
As discussed in the podcast if anyone who is interested in reaching out to P Q trading the Email address is here