Proyecto San Isidro, the Guatemalan land-based fish farming project realised with Maltese expertise and Maltese-American backing, is to be replicated in another area of the country within a sea-based concept.
The original $200,000 project, established in 2007 in the parish of San Manuel Chaparron in Jalapa, as part of a corporate social responsibility idea originated by café bistro chain Café Jubilee, has flourished.
Fr Anton Grech, the Gozitan priest who until recently led the municipality’s parish, told The Times Business the fish farm– which applies the laws of gravity rather than energy to operate – is producing up to 1,000 kilos of the tilapia fish a month. With six sizable tanks, it is entirely self-sufficient and run by seven full-timers. A percentage of the produce and profits from the project goes to charity. The rest is sold on with revenue ploughed back into the business and the local community.
Recently appointed to spiritually lead the Q’Eqchi, the main ethnic tribe of a rain forest community in Izabal, close to the Atlantic Ocean, Fr Grech has decided to take the fish farm concept with him.
The Q’Eqchi are one of Guatemala’s main ethnic groups, and the tribe is mostly made up of very poor fishermen. A sea-based fish farm, similar to the concept present in Maltese waters, would be less costly to set up and maintain than the one in Jalapa, although it could well be up to six times larger: one cage would be able to hold the volume of six land-based tanks.
It would also probably be Guatemala’s first project of its kind.
The Jalapa fish farm was designed by Prof. Carmelo Agius, the aquaculture expert, and supported by Joseph Attard of Attard Farm Supplies. Prof. Agius designed a lean system which maximises returns on investment.
Among the many benefactors, most of whom are Maltese, are the Mission Fund, and the parishioners of St Mary Church in Manhasset, New York, who backed the project after visiting the region.
Prof. Agius is again to lend his technical expertise to the realisation of the second fish farm. Fr Grech was in June granted €18,000 in overseas development aid by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the necessary feed supplies. Other benefactors are to help by tapping their contact networks and resources.
The fish farm is expected to be completed and operational within a year.
“Fish is not part of the food chain in this remote region of Guatemala,” Fr Grech said. “However, the fish farm has created demand and this is a good way to include protein in the villagers’ diet.”
Fr Grech was the first Maltese to ever set foot in these areas of Guatemala. Visited periodically by Maltese friends, Fr Grech came up with “three wishes” – projects and ideas to help the local communities advance. The first, Internet Café Jubilee, was established to benefit the 300 students of the Colegio Madre Teresa. The local business community uses the facilities at a charge.
Now that the fish farm project is to be duplicated, Fr Grech has only his third wish – a halfway house – to be granted.