All is not well between the operators of two fishing companies operating at Grand Mal.

The Southern Fisherman Inc, run by James Nicholas is very suspicious about the new Barbadian operators of the Japanese-built but government-owned Grenada Commercial Fisheries.

The fishing complex was built by Japan during the 1990-95 rule of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government headed by Sir Nicholas Brathwaite.

Just over a year ago, the ruling New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell leased out the building to a Barbadian Company for thirty-three and a third years.
And the fishing community at Grand Mal, especially the operators at Southern are not happy over the manner in which things are being done by the Bajan company.

The locals have alleged that the funds derived from the Bajan  operations are not remaining in Grenada. Both fishing entities at Grand Mal are engaged in the purchase of  fish from local fishermen, fish packaging and shipping them out to the United States.

The Southern outlet is said to be upset that the new company is being provided with duty-free concessions on diesel by the Industrial Development Corporation to operate an ice-making machine.

Southern is located  a mere 100 yards away from its competitor. Its officials claim that they receive no such concession and have to paying about $6,000.00 monthly in electricity bill for its own  ice-making machine.

A prominent fisherman in the area told GRENADA TODAY that this is seen as morally wrong."Since they (the Barbadian Company) are in the same business and ...get the ice subsidiary, it should be across the board," he said. Fears were also expressed about the methods used by the Bajan group to make ice.

It is alleged that ammonia is being used and if by chance that chemical gets into the water all the fish in the area will die."If we get a leak (of the ammonia) in this community (of Grand Mal), people will have to evacuate from their houses," the source said.

Managing Director of Southern, James Nicholas who spoke to  GRENADA TODAY said that his outfit is facing unfair competition from the Bajans. Nicholas said that he cannot see the rationale in government leasing out the Japanese complex to a foreign company when there are already people in the area engaged in the same business of processing fish for export. Nicholas claimed that the profits made by the new company do not remain in the local economy.

"The profits leave and go to Barbados when you have people here already in the business where the profits stay here. So in other words, they are not bringing any new money in this country," he remarked. Nicholas said the Bajans were able to broker a deal with the Mitchell government in order to take over the operations of Grenada Commercial Fisheries Association.

He stated that the government-owed two million dollars in debt through Grenada Commercial and needed $100, 000 in cash to make the staff redundant as the company had collapsed financially.
That money, according to Nicholas, was provided by the Barbadian Company.

He said that his group tried to get involved but was unable to come up with the funds. Nicholas who served as Chairman of the Board of the Grenada Commercial Fisheries believes that the fishing industry was on the upswing under the 1990-95 administration when former Prime Minister George Brizan served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.

He said: "A lot of things were happening through George Brizan (the then Fisheries Minister) and the government in those times. As soon as this government came into power they ignored us completely and they did their own things".

Nicholas spoke of efforts being made by the Barbadian Company to affect their business. He said that a road had to be cut for his fishing association to use in order to get access to the jetty at Grand Mal.

Prior to this, Southern had to access the jetty through their competitor's premises. Nicholas said that problems still exist between the two fishing groups.

He spoke of having agreed with one of the Directors of the Bajan outfit, James Ince to erect a barrier with a lock to the road leading to the jetty in order to avoid truckers coming at nights to remove  sand from the beach.

He said that Southern Fisherman was first given a key for the lock which was eventually vandalized. However, upon replacement of the lock, Ince reportedly failed to give them another key resulting in his men having to rely on the Bajans to have the lock open whenever their boats come onto the jetty with fish.

Nicholas sees this as a tactical move on the part of the Bajan entity to delay Southern from immediately accessing the jetty so that they can make moves to purchase the fish instead."Because of the competitiveness of the two companies they actually try to access our boats, our own members, in many ways and many times," he said.
Efforts to reach Ince via telephone proved futile. However, Manager of his company, Paula Burke said she is not aware of any problems existing between Southern Fisherman and her company.

"Maybe Mr. Ince is aware of it. I am not too sure. So maybe he can return your call. But that's news to me," Burke said.