On November 2, 2026, Dominica’s national Fisheries Division rolled out a key phase of its long-running aquaculture expansion strategy, delivering roughly 40,000 Giant Freshwater Prawn post-larvae to six registered local smallholder farmers at the state-operated Jimmit Fisheries Hatchery. The cohort of beneficiaries spans communities across the island: Jess JnoHope from Newfoundland, Shawn Martin and George Fontain based in Bagatelle, Martin Tyson from Salybia, Norris Francois of Hatten Garden, and the commercial Grow Green Aqua Farm operating out of Portsmouth. The initiative is structured as a collaborative production partnership between public authorities and independent operators: participating farmers receive free, quality-vetted post-larvae and mature broodstock directly from the government hatchery to launch and scale their prawn rearing operations. Once the crustaceans reach full harvest maturity, a pre-agreed share of the fully grown stock is cycled back to the Jimmit facility to sustain continuous hatchery breeding cycles, creating a self-reinforcing, closed-loop local production ecosystem. The program’s dual public and commercial mandates extend far beyond simply growing domestic freshwater prawn output: it is engineered to shore up national food and nutrition security by diversifying locally accessible, affordable high-quality protein sources, while opening new lucrative market pathways for small-scale producers to supply premium fresh prawns to the island’s hospitality sector, independent restaurants, and everyday household consumers. In a public outreach push, the Fisheries Division is now inviting private landowners and aspiring agricultural entrepreneurs across Dominica to tap into the untapped economic potential of low-capital freshwater prawn farming, with dedicated staff on hand to share full details on government-backed technical support, training, and resource access available for new program enrollees. This targeted aquaculture drive is a core component of the island’s wider national policy framework to reduce reliance on imported food supplies, strengthen community resilience against global supply chain disruptions, and unlock new sustainable income streams for rural Dominican farming households.
Fisheries Division distributes 40,000 freshwater prawn juveniles to six local farmers
