ABOUT 20 women spent this week undergoing training on how to prepare quality processed fish for consumption and sale.
Called 'Seafood Processing and Value Adding' it was facilitated by the University of the South Pacific's (USP) Regional Centre for Continuing and Community Education (RCCCE).
This is the first time for such training to be held in the country specifically for women.
Gabriel Titili who conducted the training said this was a pilot project targetting women, who are engaged in fisheries activities in the country.
The training is funded by the government and Taiwan under a project called “Post-harvest Fisheries Training and Development”.
This is to increase and improve food security and alleviate poverty in Fiji and Solomon Islands rural urban women communities.
"The purpose of the project is to increase and improve food security, reduce poverty hence improve livelihood among those engaged in fish handling and selling, in two countries," he said.
Mr Titili, who is from Isabel and is based in Suva with USP, said the training is important to allow women to add value to their fish products.
He said it’s common in the country that more women are selling fish in the markets than men.
"Therefore we want to train women to have this kind of skills in order for them to add value to their fish product rather than selling them.
"We want to have them gain skills on how to prepare and cook them in order to sell or consume," he said.
Throughout the week the participants undergo both theory and practical.
The practical part involves fish filleting, fish skinning, de-boning, marinating, grilling, fish smoking and solar heating using plastic.
A visit by the Solomon Star yesterday to the training venue held at the Mokolo building where lectures are held, saw the women busy heating the fish fillet using smoke and the sun using plastics.
Most of the women expressed excitement over the new training as it had enabled them to gain extra knowledge on how fish can be processed using the two methods.
Mr Titili said such skills can be acquired by any one as long as they undergo training.
"These are simple skills which can make a difference to the people in this country because we depend so much on our marine resources," he said.
He will travel to Buala, in Isabel to conduct a similar training next week starting on Monday for Isabel women.
The training will end today with the presentation of certificates to the participants.
Mr Titili, who is a qualified fisheries trainer, is hoping more trainings will be held in the future.
By MOFFAT MAMU
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