Quality sustainability requirements SARDINELLA AND OTHER SMALL PELAGICS FISH VALUE AND SUPPLY CHAIN

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3.6 Quality sustainability requirements

The absence of cold storage facilities in the landing sites makes the activities of processors very important in the sardinella value chain. There are five traditional ways of processing sardinella, and these are smoking, salting, drying, frying and fermenting. The industrial processing of sardinella is not done in Ghana. Sardinella in its fresh form has to be sold within three to twelve hours depending on the temperature to prevent spoilage. The most common form of processed sardinella is the one which is smoked and most of sardinella to the market is in this form. The inadequacy of cold storage in the fishing industry makes the distribution of fresh sardinella limited to a few kilometres from the fish landing site. The main problems associated with sardinella smoking are hygiene and cleanliness. During the initial stages of smoking, flies and other insects are all over the fish and control of processed fish for levels of contamination is non-existent. One common theme among processors was the lack of storage facilities for processed fish. The Ghana Standards Authority GSA as a regulatory body to ensure standardization for the improvement of the quality of goods, services and sound management practices in industries and public institutions is present in the fishery industry at the production and processing stages to control all aspects of hygiene and quality standards. However, GSA is limited largely in terms of logistics, manpower and capacity building of their employees. There is the need therefore, to strengthen the capacity of GSA and other public institutions of concern to sustain the quality of fish and fishery products. With respect to information gathered during the study, including interaction with major stakeholders such as fishers, processors and marketers of sardinella, it does not appear the sardinella or the other small pelagics from large to small scale processors are exported into the European market. According to the Head of Fish Control at GSA, the EU are extremely difficult to appease with regards to sanitary and hygiene standards. The GSA incorporates EU regulation into their policies. To export to the EU is a difficult procedure because of the standards required. The USA has much lower standards but the market is more closed towards Ghana ONeill, 2013.

3.7 Level of commitments regarding quality