During the 7th International Film Festival "Fishermen of the world", the FAO film on the successful project "Support to post-harvest fisheries technology" has been selected under the category "Découvertes" (Discoveries).

The International Film Festival "Fishermen of the world" is an annual cultural event organized by a team of volunteers and fisheries experts in Lorient, France. It introduces new or recent films dedicated to the sea people, and invites to discover images of the sea from all over the world, while providing a platform for debates and exchanges on political, economic, social and environmental questions related to the fisheries sector. Each edition gives fishermen the possibility to speak about themselves, enables the workers from the sea to introduce their world to the audience, to express their love for their jobs and to share their hopes and fears.

For this 7th edition, the FAO film on the successful project "Support to post-harvest fisheries technology" has been selected under the category "Découvertes" (Discoveries). This film has been produced last year, and presents the long-term outputs and impact of a FAO technical cooperation programme which has been implemented in Burundi 8 years ago. Specifically, the project introduced to fishing communities along Lake Tanganyika an improved and simple fish drying technique, which enabled to curb post-harvest fish losses and resulted into a large scale improvement in the living conditions of the fish operators. The short version of the video can be viewed below.

The presence of FAO during this International Film Festival was highly appreciated. During the panel discussions, the FAO representatives pointed out the impartial and advisory role of FAO in the decision-making process in the global fisheries sector. They also insisted on the importance not only of a more sustainable management of fisheries resources, but also of an efficient management of the catches through fight against losses and waste, and the generation of fish by-products resulting from the production process, and in less developed countries through the adoption of improved processing technologies.

Discussions on the possibility for FAO to become official partner of the Festival for the next editions were initiated. That would imply the participation of FAO representatives in the preliminary panel discussions and the financing offered by this international organization of some fishermen and fisherwomen from less developed countries to participate at the Festival.