Agriculture Minister Alfred Prospere disclosed that the government provided the organisation with a loan to settle the outstanding monies owed.

“The loan was approved through the Economic Fund and I know an amount has been withdrawn - I think about $700,000. Some of that is going towards the upgrade of the electricals at the facility. There was an outstanding bill of almost $70,000 that was due to the fishers. I know quite a bit of it went to LUCELEC because there was quite a high electricity bill that had not been paid for a while,” the Agriculture Minister explained.

Prospere also outlined some measures to be implemented in the fishing sector. Prospere says much needed equipment will be made available to fisheries across the island.

“We are going to provide support in terms of ice machines that are not functional. We are going to provide steel processing tables for our fishers because sanitation is very important. We are going to provide fish display cabinets and fish storage boxes,” he continued.

The Minister says the government will continue providing support for farmers and fishermen in an attempt to achieve food security.