After nearly two decades of operational ambiguity, Suriname and Venezuela have formally renewed their bilateral fisheries agreement, closing a long-standing legal gap that had threatened Suriname’s international seafood export access. The original 2007 agreement expired and was never updated, leaving more than 200 Venezuelan fishing vessels that have operated consistently in Suriname’s Atlantic waters without a formal bilateral regulatory framework.
Confusion over the terms of the renewed deal spread late last week after Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez issued an official statement following a meeting with Suriname’s president Jennifer Simons. Rodríguez claimed that 200 new fishing permits would be granted to Venezuelan vessels from the states of Nueva Esparta and Sucre to operate in a designated Atlantic corridor under Surinamese oversight. This wording led to widespread misunderstanding that Suriname would open its waters to 200 additional previously-unauthorized fishing boats.
Parveen Amritpersad, Director of Suriname’s Fisheries Department, clarified the details in an interview with local outlet Starnieuws, stressing that no new vessels are being admitted to Surinamese waters. “This is not an expansion of foreign fishing access – we are simply formalizing the legal status of an existing fleet that has operated here for years,” Amritpersad explained. According to the Surinamese Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (LVV), the renewal only updates the expired permits issued under the 2004 framework for the same group of vessels that have fished in the region consistently.
For years after the original 2007 agreement lapsed, Venezuelan vessels continued to operate through a workaround: permits were issued to Surinamese seafood processing companies under national domestic regulations, and those companies then held working contracts with the Venezuelan fishing fleets. But this structure failed to meet international requirements, which mandate that foreign-flagged fishing vessels operate under a valid bilateral government-to-government agreement. Without this formal basis, Suriname risked sanctions on its seafood exports.
The European Union had repeatedly flagged this gap to successive Surinamese governments, including it in official recommendations as a issue that required urgent correction to address unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Negotiations on renewal had stalled for years, in part due to political hold-ups on the Venezuelan side, but pressure from the EU accelerated finalization of the updated agreement.
The new legal framework is critical to protecting Suriname’s key seafood export sector. Suriname is currently in ongoing talks with the European Commission to demonstrate its progress in combating IUU fishing, and international buyers now require strict proof that all fish caught for export operates under a valid regulatory regime with full traceability. This requirement extends to exports to the United States, where market access rules for seafood have tightened significantly in recent years.
Under the terms of the renewed agreement, all participating Venezuelan vessels must comply with Suriname’s permit rules, including a requirement to land all catches at Surinamese ports for processing by local companies. Two major Surinamese processors, Deep Sea and Caribbean Seafood, already maintain long-term working relationships with the Venezuelan fleets, and all catches are required to be landed at the CEVIHAS port facility before processing and export.