In the coastal Belizean town of Hopkins, a groundbreaking regional workshop last week is opening doors to an unexpected new economic opportunity: turning discarded fish waste into high-value, sustainable handcrafted goods. The initiative, which targeted local women, young entrepreneurs, and small-scale fishing community members, trains participants to convert fish skin that would otherwise be thrown away into durable, natural leather for products ranging from handbags and wallets to footwear and apparel.
This upskilling program is a core component of the SICA Azul Project, an initiative focused on unlocking additional revenue streams from Central America’s fishing industry by leveraging underutilized byproducts. Leading the hands-on training was Pili Luna, a Honduran innovator who traveled to Belize through the Consejo Agropecuario Centroamericano. Luna holds a international patent for her unique fish skin-to-leather conversion method, which stands out for its low-barrier, eco-friendly design.
Unlike industrial leather production that relies on heavy machinery, toxic chemicals and high energy inputs, Luna’s process is 100% natural, fully artisanal, and requires no electricity or specialized industrial equipment. The entire workflow takes just three hours of labor per week per batch, with finished, usable leather ready for production within two weeks — all starting from material that once ended up in landfills or discarded as waste after fish processing.
For participating local entrepreneurs, the training has already sparked new business plans. Ashanti Martinez, founder of Belizean brand Ashanti’s Crochet Design, intends to integrate the sustainable fish skin leather into her existing line of handmade bags to create unique, locally sourced products. Another participant, Leshawn Woodye, noted the versatility of the material, pointing out that it can be used to manufacture everything from clothing to high-quality footwear.
Hally Faux, a local fisher based in Hopkins, described the workshop as a transformative shift in how fishing communities view industry waste. “All that skin goes to waste after a while because of the fillet and whatever they do with it, and as a fisher myself, I learned to turn the fish skin into leather, and now I have a short business idea,” Faux explained.
Belize’s Agriculture Minister Rodwell Ferguson has already pledged government support to help participants turn their new skills into a viable, scalable industry. Ferguson announced plans to assist the participating women in forming a collective cooperative, as well as helping the group access startup funding to launch their businesses. “This is our income for them as a mother, as a wife, so I’m going to work with them for it to be accomplished,” Ferguson said.
If successful, the new fish leather industry could deliver dual benefits for Belize: it would cut down on organic waste from the country’s large fishing sector while creating stable, locally controlled income streams for marginalized groups including women, youth and small-scale fishing families that rely on the ocean for their livelihoods.