FISHERIES AND MARKET FOR FISHERY PRODUCTS IN MEXICO, ETC. 89 



found in them. As may be seen, fishing is hardly a skilled occupa- 

 tion. 



Fish are always brought to market fresh, and the market folk 

 who buy them keep them for a day, more or less, and then clean 

 and salt them themselves. This, of course, means that one can 

 never have a guaranty of the freshness of a fish. The total fish 

 product is consumed locally, there being not even intercommunal 

 trade except with inland towns, and no exporting is done. 



Salt cod is the only fish imported in any large quantities. Sardines 

 and anchovies are brought in in small quantities from France. 

 The value per pound of products imported from France is, roughly, 

 eight times that of the United States. 



There is no reexport of imported products. Haiti has no industry 

 except agriculture and its dependent works, such as cigarette fac- 

 tories and sugar mills. The small amount of sardines and tinned 

 fish that is imported is hardly worth analyzing, and the convention 

 between France and Haiti does not specifically include sardines in 

 the general 33 3 per cent reduction of duties. The general sale of 

 French sardines and anchovies is mostly due to the superior quality 

 and better reputation of French products, aided by the paternal 

 attitude of France toward Haiti and the natural close feeling between 

 two countries speaking the same language. All this, however, is 

 purely relative, for while the French products are sold to a greater 

 extent than the American the whole amount involved is extremely 

 small. 



The balance of trade is so tremendously in favor of the United 

 States at present that any increase in fish products coming in must 

 either be in a wider consumption of more expensive fish, which is 

 practically impossible at present, owing to the extreme depression 

 now prevailing in the Republic, or in the creation of markets for 

 by-products. This latter field is untouched in Haiti, because there 

 are no industries which deal in such, and, so far as one can judge, 

 there never will be any great or extensive manufacturing or industrial 

 plants on the island while nature's products grow so well and cheaply. 



CAPE HAITIEN. 



[By Avra M. Warren, consul, September 30, 1921.] 



In this consular district native fishermen catch sea turtles, shrimp, 

 lobster, and fresh fish for daily local consumption. The fishing is 

 done with small seines, or by fish and lobster pots, or by trolling 

 from small sailboats. There is no curing of fish in the consular 

 district. 



No fishery products are exported. Salt, dried, and smoked 

 herring, mackerel, and cod were imported into Haiti for the year 

 September, 1919, to September, 1920, from the United States "and 

 France, as follows: From the United States, 4,854,339 pounds, 

 valued at $639,621; from France, 3,583 pounds, valued at $4,163; 

 and from other countries, 80,780 pounds, valued at $3,546. There 

 is no reexport of imported fish products. 



The only fish products imported from countries other than the 

 United States are mackerel and herring, pickled or prepared in a 

 manner exclusive to the country of exportation. As the import 

 statistics indicate, the American market has a monopoly of the 

 fishery products imported into Haiti. 



