GEO Haiti 2010

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GEO HAITI • 2010
• Implementation of the Special Food Security
(Programme SPFS for) in the MARNDR;
• Implementation of a joint program
MARNDR / Embassy of the United States,
against crop pests.
The sector benefited in 2007 from favorable
weather conditions, as for example, an increase
of 38.2% of rainfall over the previous year, which
led to a positive increase. However, this suffered
a setback due to the hurricanes that struck the
country during the summer of 2008.
Table 7: Annual Production and Supply of Fish
4.1.2 Fishing
Fishing is a sector of minor importance to the
Haitian economy, despite its potential. As an
island state, Haiti has a surface area of 5,860 km²
of continental shelf and 86,398 km² of exclusive
economic zone (FAO, 2005). The quantity of
imported fish however is much higher than
exports, this sector still very low
Data
Fish
destined for
consumption
Production
(in tons of
live weight)
Imports
(in tons of
live weight)
Exports (in
tons of live
weight)
Total Supply
(in tons of
live weight
Supply per
inhabitant/
year (kg)
5,000 16,679 337 21,342 2.6
Source: FAO, 2005
• Even if the fishing industry does not occupy
a place of primary importance in the Haitian
economy, it plays a role in creating jobs, especially
in coastal areas, employing over 50,000 people.
Aquaculture, for its part, is undeveloped, with a
production of 300 tons and contributing only
800 jobs to the economy (FAO, 2005).
• The sector also faces certain difficulties such as:
• Decreased fish catches,
• Increased fishing activity on the continental
shelf,
• Degraded coastal ecosystems as a result of a
weak environmental monitoring,
• Weak legal supervision in relation to the
preservation of marine productivity,
• The use of too finely-meshed fishnets,
• Compressor or seine fishing causing a
destructive use of the environment.
4.1.3 Industry
The industrialization process initiated in the early
1960s is still underdeveloped.
At the beginning of the industrialization process,
activities centered mainly on the manufacturing
of electronic parts, of textiles and beverages. This
significantly slowed down as a result of the United
Nations’ trade embargo against Haiti between 1992
and 1994, the consequences of which the country
is still suffering. This sector employed 430,000
people in 1991, but numbered only 13,000 in 1995
(Deshommes, 2005) and not more than 25,000
people in 2005 (UNDP, 2005).
The country’s mining industry has also remained
at an embryonic stage. Mining has been
concentrated on bauxite (from 1956 to 1982 by
the Reynolds Mining Corporation), with 14,000,000
tons extracted, and copper (from 1960 to 1971 by
the Society for Economic and Natural Mining and
Development (SEDREN) in the central part of the
country, with 1,500,000 tons (PREPETIT, 1997). The
mining operations carried out by these foreign
companies provided little to the country in terms
of benefits to the State or to the community,
whether from the point of view of fees paid by
these companies to the State, or wages paid to
employees and workers (PIERRE-CHARLES, 1994).