Latin America and the Caribbean are represented by case studies from Barbados and Mexico. In Barbados, credit is supplied to the fishing industry through the Barbados Development Bank, which provides better loan terms and interest rates than commercial banks. The Mexican study centres on a coooperative of fishermen which is funded by a number of state-owned institutions, including a marketing corporation. Loans in Barbados are provided mostly for the construction and conversion of fishing vessels, while the purpose of those to the Mexican cooperative was to construct artifical habitats for spiny lobster and to purchase small fishing boats with outboard engines.
The Mexican scheme has resulted in good loan repayment rates; the cooperative provides its spiny lobster catch for sale by the marketing corporation which deducts its repayments from the sales proceeds. The Barbados Development Bank was less successful in terms of loan recovery.
BARBADOS
Loans for fisheries in Barbados are provided by the Barbados Development Bank (BDB) to improve fishery infrastructures, reduce dependence on imports, generate employment, assist cooperatives and improve the fishing fleet.
While BDB loans in the 1970s were mainly for the construction and equipping of inshore motor vessels, the last five years have seen the provision of loans for engine replacement, gear and safety equipment, conversions of dayboats to medium range vessels with insulated fish holds and the construction of fibreglass medium range fishing boats. The loan disbursement rate has improved during the 1980s, reaching 98.5% of the approved target. The loan repayment rate is unfortunately low, despite the adoption of methods to stimulate repayment, such as the payment of higher instalments during the peak fishing season when revenue is higher. An analysis of the BDB portfolio at 31 March 1989 showed that only 15.5% of total loans could be considered satisfactory, i.e. two months or less in arrears of interest and/or principal.
MEXICO
The Mexican case study reviews the provision of credit to a fishermen's cooperative in Punta Allen, Mexico, created in 1969 to develop the harvesting of spiny lobster and reef fish. The Punta Allen cooperative has several distinctive feaures, two of the most significant being the self-help approach to community development which they have adopted and the rigid internal rules imposed upon their members.
The cooperative has been financed by a number of sources, the Cooperative Promotion Bank in 1972, a financing institution called Monte de Piedad in 1974, and a state-owned fisheries corporation, Productors Pesqueros Mexicanos, from 1980 to 1984. Since 1985 the cooperative has received financial support from four state-owned institutions: an international fish marketing corporation, a fisheries development bank, the central bank and a small commercial bank.
The majority of the funding comes from the fish marketing corporation, Ocean Garden Products Inc. In the last four years funding has been used to build artificial habitats for spiny lobster and to purchase small boats with outboard motors. There is an agreement with Ocean Garden Products to provide 90% of spiny lobster production directly to them for marketing, and 30% of invoice value is deducted by them until the loan is repaid. The loan recovery rate is therefore very satisfactory, at 100%.
The credit provided by the other three institutions is relatively recent so it is not yet possible to assess their success, although some data are provided in the case study.
