Fishery resources for food security and livelihoods is an important part of everyday life for all coastal communities in Fiji. Fish handling, preservation, and marketing are essential in maximizing the benefits of fishery resources and improving food security.

Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) representatives and Ministry of Fisheries staff performed a week-long fish post-harvest training in the Western division of Fiji. The trainings took place in 2021 Natawarau settlement in Ba and at Yasawa islands (in the villages of Teci, Bukama, and Yasawa-i-rara).

At each venue, there were around twenty seven attendees of various ages, including both men and women, who all gained greater knowledge about fish handling techniques, value adding and how to preserve fish by cold smoking using a drum smoker and through sun drying.

The participants were intrigued by the usage of a drum smoker to smoke fish even though they were familiar with hot smoking as this their traditional method of preserving fish. The women participants were especially interested in the cold smoking of tuna and the utilization of tuna head and leftover flesh to make tuna samosas. Their feedback to the training was favourable since they acquired new skills that would enable them to earn money in the future, particularly in light of the reopening of international borders following theCOVID-19 pandemic.

The village headman of Yasawa-i-rara said: “this is the first time we have received such training in the village. Using the drum as a smoker; and seeing the interest of the villagers participating in this training has really pleased me as they always look forward to such trainings. This training has given us the opportunity to develop our skills and use them to earn a living by selling cold smoked fish and value-added product like samosas when tourists will visit our village”.

All participants underwent fundamental training on safe food handling and sanitation standards for operating procedures.. One of the important topics highlighted was the six parameters for microbial growth - food, acid, time, temperature, oxygen, and moisture.and how food handlers contribute to it, and if not controlled can resultin foodborne diseases and food spoilage. Several fish preparation techniques and cuts were demonstrated, like skinning, loining, steak, and tuna jerky cuts, as well as the brining, marination, and drying of fish before smoking.

The fisher organizations (Association and Cooperative) received training tools so that they  continue the practice of cold smoking and sun drying fish to enhance capabilities in food preservation methods. Due to villages’ remote locations along with limited ice supplies and little to no freezing capacity, has resulted in villages resorting to alternatives like smoked fish. The beneficiaries expressed their gratitude for the opportunity and the equipment which would likely enhance their post harvest activities to export standard.

Fisher organizations interviewed

After the training, the office bearers and members of the fisher associations and cooperatives were interviewed to gain a better understanding of what their roles are and what challenges they face.

"Fishing is a daily activity for coastal communities on the island and the main source of income, so we came up with the idea of forming a cooperative so that we could receive outside assistance and the fishers in the village could benefit from equipment to generate revenue," said the cooperative's chairman. He went on to say that the group's top priority now is to receive soft skills training so that they can better understand how to operate and sustain the business.

One of the respondents mentioned that they had to travel a long distance to catch the fish, and they couldn't store it for long due to a lack of proper storage facilities. In the interim, until the cooperative is able to procure freezers, the FAO-led training gave them a different way to preserve fish for the following day's meals. The participants also noted that speaking with someone in person rather than over the phone allows them to express and clarify their problems more effectively. . Conducting the interview directly in the village with the group also allowed for the voices of all the fishers to be heard.

Background

The ‘Enhancing livelihoods and food security through fisheries with nearshore fish aggregating devices in the Pacific Ocean’, also known as the FishFAD project, is implemented by FAO and funded by the Government of Japan. The project focuses on structuring and strengthening fishers' associations and cooperatives based on the priority needs of the fisher associations, as well as livelihood opportunities and revenue-generating activities such as post-harvest processing and marketing.