Cutting head, cutting tail, removing the trunk. Cutting head, cutting tail, removing the trunk.
The relentless thump of knives against wooden boards resonates throughout the main area of a sardine processing plant in Guaca, a traditional fishing village in the Sucre state of eastern Venezuela. About 200 workers, each dressed in a black bag that serves as an apron, contribute to this ambience.
Fishermen dock their boats overflowing with glimmering fish, unloading them by buckets onto the narrow dock of a white-tiled warehouse with tin roofs, built on the coast where a lead-colored sea and sulfurous odors meet. Centrifuges whirl to descale each load, while some employees, clad in rubber boots, hose down the blood and sandy entrails of the freshly cut fish.
“Come on, come on,” yells the foreman in another warehouse, whose windowless walls and worn floor bear the weight of a loud reggaeton that accompanies the vigorous dissection of thousands of sardines in unison. Other workers in tattered clothes speed up the process in an adjacent shed made of wooden panels and zinc roofs, all constructed along what was once the beach of Guaca, where they directly receive fishing goods packed in ice for processing and subsequent transport to local canneries.
The noise in the warehouses and shanties, the clattering of machines, and the constant rounds of supervisors from the Ministry of Fishing and Aquaculture (MinPesca) indicate that it’s harvest season, and time is of the essence. In just two weeks, the ban begins, lasting for three months, during which no artisanal fishermen can cast their nets to capture sardines, nor will the plants be allowed to process them.
The prohibition on fishing sardines (*Sardinella aurita*) from December 15 to March 15 each year is part of a series of regulations aimed at protecting and managing this “hydrobiological resource,” as outlined in the DM/N°043-17 resolution by MinPesca, published in the Official Gazette in December 2017. This also includes requirements for a minimum catch size of 19 centimeters and adherence to predetermined fishing schedules.
The regulation explicitly states that the export of sardines (*Sardinella aurita*) is “strictly prohibited.” The effects of this ban are evident, as reflected in the absence of sardines among the 24 marine species listed in the 2024 and 2025 Exportable Supply Catalog, published by the Ministry of Fishing and Aquaculture along with the Foreign Trade Bank (Bancoex), which aims to offer Venezuelan Caribbean hydrobiological resources to the international market.
However, international trade databases like UN Comtrade, Panjiva, Importgenius, and 52wmb reveal other maneuvers involving this resource that violate such prohibitions. Export reports unequivocally certify that Venezuela has indeed been selling sardines to other countries, at least since 2021, according to these sources. The primary destination for these exports is a key political ally of the so-called Bolivarian Revolution: Castro’s Cuba.
Underwater Exports
The seasonal ban on sardine fishing and the prohibition on exports are not arbitrary. Both measures, adopted in 2017, were urgent actions necessary to counter the drastic decline in sardine fishing recorded in the Venezuelan Caribbean since 2005.
In addition to its importance in the marine ecosystem, sardines also represent the most crucial source of low-cost animal protein for Venezuelans. They serve as the primary food source for other commercial fish species like dorado, sierra, mackerel, and jurel, and are used as bait for fishing snapper, grouper, and tuna, all of which hold significant commercial value. Sardines are also used to produce fishmeal, which feeds the shrimp industry that, with sales of $246 million in 2023, has become one of Venezuela’s main export products.
Since 2005, however, what many experts identify as the “sardine crisis” has unfolded, caused by overfishing of the species, changes in water temperatures, and diminished aquatic fertility in the region.
The latest figure for annual sardine production in Venezuela was published two years ago. In the first half of 2023, approximately 29,000 metric tons of sardines were fished, a 15% increase over the previous year. However, this only represented a mere 15% of the 200,000 metric tons recorded in 2005.
As part of strategic conservation measures for the species and sustainable exploitation, sardine fishing has been exclusively reserved for artisanal and subsistence fishermen, along with their community associations, as stated in Article 21 of the 2001 Fishing Law (with amendments in 2008, 2014, and 2022). Until March 2025, the labor reserve dedicated to sardine fishing comprised over 5,000 fishermen, according to MinPesca director Juan Carlos Loyo. These maritime workers have been organized since 2017, when MinPesca was created, into what are called Councils of Fishermen and Aquaculturists (Conppa), which must report their activities to the National Fisheries Institute (Insopesca), affiliated with the ministry.
But quietly and overnight, while Minister Loyo proclaimed sardines as “the prized mother of the fish” in our biodiversity, Venezuela abandoned its caution in the management of the species, at least regarding the export ban on sardines.
The country has exported 1,932 tons of sardines, equivalent to just over one million dollars, between January 2021 and August 2024, according to international trade platform Importgenius; this was merely a fraction of national production.
Importgenius also records 42 shipments over the past two and a half years under the names of the Ministry of Food and six private companies, at least three of which (Consorcio Vista al Mar C.A., Perla del Sur C.A., and Los Roques 2014 C.A.) signed cooperation agreements with the Ministry of Fishing in January 2017 to increase the capacity of certain fishing plants. This objective aimed to translate into greater canned production to be included in the offerings of subsidized food boxes from the governmental program Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP).
In 2017, the Ministry of Fishing announced that six private and foreign companies, in a strategic alliance with the government, would invest $463 million and 294 billion bolivars (about $27 million at the time’s official exchange rate) to revamp nine Social Fishing Production Units (UPSA) in the states of Zulia, Sucre, and Nueva Esparta.
Among the sardine exporters, the Ministry of Food registers the highest number of shipments abroad: 1,233 tons of canned sardines, valued at $180,051, or 63.8% of the total shipments, also according to Importgenius.
These exports tend to be concentrated in one destination: Cuba. As of 2024, the island nation has received 73% of the total Venezuelan sardine sales in the international market.
Among the private companies listed in the export reports, Consorcio Vista al Mar C.A. stands out, a company that, despite ongoing sanctions from Washington, exported 394 tons to the United States, the world’s largest buyer of sardines. Consorcio Vista al Mar also sold one ton to Spain, the EU country with the highest sardine consumption.
Its owners, firms Corporación Friport and Constructora El Yaque, along with partners Victor Manuel Martins Alfaiate, Carlos Manuel Martins Guerra, Carlos Enrique Guruceaga Rodríguez, and Oscar Augusto de Guruceaga López, are prominently featured among the entrepreneurs of the so-called “socialist tourism” in the state of Nueva Esparta.
Also, under the aforementioned agreement with MinPesca, Consorcio Vista al Mar took over the recovery of three production units in 2017: Consorcio Pesquero Islamar, UPSA Julián Marcano, and Sardine Processing Plant, all in Nueva Esparta.
In its facilities at the port of El Guamache, in southeastern Margarita Island, the “Productive Economy of the Blue Venezuela” workday was held last May, attended by Nicolás Maduro, his wife Cilia Flores, and Minister Juan Carlos Loyo. The Minister of Fishing and Aquaculture –who provided only percentages and no numbers– stated that, in the first four months of 2024, sardine catches increased by 72%, while canning capacity rose by 70%. He claimed that the increase in sardine production was part of the “aquaculture revolution.” On that occasion, the minister listed the fishing and aquaculture species included in the exportable supply, but didn’t mention sardines.
Perla del Sur C.A. is another company in El Guamache that exported 176 tons of canned sardines to Cuba in two shipments, between January and February 2024. This company produces canned sardines under the El Faro brand, which were included in the CLAP boxes at least up until 2020. Under the January 2017 agreement, they were assigned to develop the Social Production Unit (UPSA) Jesús ‘Chu’ Melchor.
A note from the official VTV channel announced in October 2020 that the purpose of these strategic alliances was the “strengthening of the National Proteic Plan for Fishing and Aquaculture.” In the case of Perla del Sur, they were assigned the recovery of UPSA Jesús ‘Chu’ Melchor in Margarita to produce 4,800 tons of canned sardines monthly and 1,000 tons per month of frozen sardine logs for national distribution via CLAP.
The Fishing Company Güiria (Copegui), registered in 1999 at the main port of Cumaná, the capital of Sucre state, exported 48 tons of sardines for $9,600 in 2021, according to Importgenius.
In Guaca, the area northeast of Cumaná where this narrative begins, there are two sardine processing firms from a family group that market the brand Los Roques. Both are listed as exporters: Los Roques 2014 C.A. sent 54 tons to Brazil valued at $61,272 in August 2024. This company, owned by Andy José Bellorín Ramos and Buena Ventura Ramos Zabala, took over the development of UPSA Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi in Sucre after signing the agreement with MinPesca in 2017. The other, Inversiones Buenaventura 2014, exported 22 tons worth $21,254 in June 2024, according to Importgenius.
Also from Guaca but under different ownership, Productos Piscícolas Propisca S.A. exported four tons valued at $24,108 to the United States in January 2024, per Importgenius. A large sign for this company, founded in 1974 and later acquired by Khaled Khalil Majzoub –a long-standing government contractor along with his brother Majed– can be seen from the Guaca-Carúpano road. The board includes Julio César Rodríguez Salazar and Jihd Nassif Hazime, regulars in the Khalil circle. While it appears as the firm that exported the least amount of sardines among the six mentioned and the Ministry of Food, it was the one that sold at the highest price.
A letter requesting information was submitted to the Ministry of Food at its office in Andrés Bello avenue in Caracas. Attempts were also made to obtain comments via email from the exporting firms Consorcio Pesquero Vista al Mar, La Perla del Sur, Los Roques 2014, Compañía de Pesca Güiria (Copegui), Inversiones Buena Ventura 2014, and Productos Piscícolas Propisca. However, no responses were received from any of the parties questioned by the close of this report.
Fleeing Schools
As mentioned, sardines hold a significant place on the tables of lower-income sectors in Venezuela, a role that has gained even more relevance with the onset of the socioeconomic and humanitarian crisis.
Perhaps mindful of this, Minister Juan Carlos Loyo stated in the same speech last March, during the Day of the Artisan Fisherman and Aquaculturist, that sardines served as a shield to withstand “the missiles of imperialism when they took away 99% of our income,” referring to international sanctions.
As recently as April 12, the Minister of Food, Major General Carlos Leal Tellería, posted a photo on Instagram alongside Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and Minister Juan Carlos Loyo, announcing the Venezuela Eats + Fish Operation, which supplements previous campaigns like Venezuela Eats Fish and The Sardine Caravan, which aimed to encourage “national-exclusive consumption” of this fish protein.
Yet behind the rhetoric, consumption was not “national-exclusive”: contrary to the official regulations, exports were being conducted.
“It is unacceptable that from a country with high levels of malnutrition and food crisis, the primary animal protein and the most affordable for Venezuelans is being exported,” insists oceanographer and fishing expert from the Caribe Sur Foundation, Juan José Cárdenas, when asked about this paradoxical reality.
Cárdenas’s surprise aligns with that of other experts consulted by Armando Info for this report.
“In the worst famines in human history, governments in some starving countries continued exporting food. In Venezuela, we have not recorded a scale of famine similar during this emergency, but it would not be surprising if [the export of food during a crisis] were the situation with sardines, which is even more serious given the persistent high rates of anemia in the population,” comments a nutrition expert who requested anonymity.
The specialist cites two examples: one refers to the Great Chinese Famine from 1959 to 1961, considered the worst hunger tragedy in human history, resulting in between 15 million and 55 million deaths, according to various sources. A study from the University of British Columbia in Canada and the National University of Singapore suggested that the ongoing grain exports during that period directly caused 30 million deaths. A similar situation occurred during the historical potato famine in Ireland, from 1845 to 1849; agricultural exports from Ireland to Great Britain continued while hunger devastated the island, pushing hundreds of thousands of Irish to emigrate.
Drawing parallels, the situation in Venezuela presents some similarities. The latest survey by the HumVenezuela Platform (February 2025), monitoring the complex humanitarian emergency in the country, indicates that seven out of ten Venezuelans must resort to alternative strategies for obtaining food, as the number of people going days without eating increases. The 2024 Regional Panorama of Food Security and Nutrition by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) records a prevalence of anemia at 24% among Venezuelan women aged 15 to 49, above the Latin American average (17.2%), and higher than the same indicator in Venezuela in 2012 (21%). Against all common sense, sardine exports began during this period.
These trends blur and become mysterious in the growing darkness of statistical information in Venezuela. Currently, the national sardine consumption is unknown, which implies there is no way of knowing if there’s a surplus of national production that can be allocated for export.
The latest food production and consumption report dates back to 2018, conducted not by an official entity, but by the Institute of Economic and Social Research (IIES) at the Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas (UCAB), which recorded a decline in canned sardine consumption from 3.25 kilos in 2004 to 1.89 kilos per capita annually in 2017. The same study identified another trend: while per capita production of canned sardines fell by 79% between 1994 and 2014, imports of this same category surged by 994% during that same period.
Instead of sinking in this sea of contradictions, the government remains unaffected, boasting about renewed export activity. In October 2020, just three years after the ban was enacted, Nicolás Maduro announced that Venezuela had sent marine products to the international market, including sardines. He added that this would help “capture foreign currency to invest in the modernization of the entire fishing system in the country.”
In August 2023, the president of the Socialist Institute of Fishing and Aquaculture (Insopesca), Admiral Jorge Tajan, asserted that the Mar Caribe Group C.A. Processing Plant, located in the Los Conejeros sector of Nueva Esparta state, was not only producing nearly 29,000 tons of sardines, but also exporting them to Europe and North America. “This is part of the strategies to boost and strengthen the country’s economic activity,” he justified.
Growing Without Numbers
The bay of El Morro de Puerto Santo offers one of the most picturesque views along the road leading from Carúpano to the Paria Peninsula, the eastern tip of Sucre state. The “machines,” as the locals call the boats used for sardine fishing, float on the shores of this fishing village founded in the 1940s during the sardine fishing boom. They await departure eastward, heading to the Guayanas platform in the Atlantic Ocean, far away from what was once the fertile Special Economic Zone of Venezuela.
This idyllic picture is deceptive. Many boats remain anchored beside the dock due to fuel shortages. Others, sure, still venture out to sea.
“Yesterday’s catch was good, but today it seems not so much. It’s mid-morning and they still haven’t returned with sardines,” shares a fisherman who has dedicated over 30 years to this trade, interviewed by Armando Info and the Pulitzer Center during a visit to El Morro de Puerto Santo at the end of November 2024.
The competitive rivalry between Morro de Puerto Santo and Guaca is well-known in the region. Since the so-called sardine crisis erupted in 2005, it has intensified. Like the houses in Guaca, the buildings in this narrow-streeted village are precarious. At the shore where sewage flows, vultures and pelicans alike fight over leftovers from the baskets unloaded by fishermen. Everyone complains about the lack of fuel and the decline in catches over the years. “Production has dropped. The sardines from Guaca are being pulled to Guaca. They don’t want anything from here,” lament those in Morro de Puerto Santo.
The Minister of Fishing and Aquaculture insists that sardine fishing has increased in recent years, but he has not provided comparative figures to support his claim, only percentages. In January 2025, he stated that the sardine industry had grown by 47% in 2024, leading to more than 30 companies and 47 national brands assuring the “food sovereignty.”
The most recent data on annual sardine production in Venezuela comes from 2023. Nicolás Maduro himself claimed that in the first half of that year, 28,938 tons of sardines were caught, representing a 15% increase compared to the previous year.
However, this level of production is still below the unofficial average registered since 2005, the infamous year of the sardine crisis in Venezuela. Since then, experts from the Oceanographic Institute of the Universidad de Oriente (UDO) have warned that “the sardine stock is in danger.”
From 1973 to 2022, sardine production ranged from 800,000 to one million metric tons annually, reported in a study Nine Decades of Sardine Exploitation (Sardinella aurita) in Venezuela, by researcher Alfredo Gómez Gaspar from the Marine Museum of Margarita and the University of Oriente, published in 2022 in the Marine and Coastal Research Bulletin based on MinPesca figures.
In the book Fish and its Species (Polar Foundation, 2020), it’s noted that in 2004 sardine catches (Sardinella aurita) peaked at 200,000 metric tons, with 100,000 caught in Margarita Island alone.
However, the following year, the National Socialist Fishing Institute (Insopesca), affiliated with the Ministry of Fishing and Aquaculture, reported a 50% decrease in sardine catches. The resource almost vanished from the waters of Nueva Esparta. Since then, production has fluctuated but never exceeded 50,000 metric tons annually.
“Until the early 2000s, sardine catches hovered around 200,000 tons annually, and that availability was accessible to national consumers. A study I participated in at the National Institute of Nutrition indicated that by 2015, at least 500,000 tons of fish protein were needed annually to cover Venezuela’s nutritional requirements,” states Cárdenas, the Caribe Sur Foundation expert. He estimates that there is currently a deficit of about 300,000 tons yearly to meet the nutritional needs set by INN, concluding, “Given this shortage, it is unjustifiable that Venezuela is exporting the most affordable fish for Venezuelans.”
In the fishing communities of Sucre state, located off the northeastern coast, which is the prime habitat for sardines in Venezuela, artisanal fishermen pride themselves on having “saved the country from famine” during the pandemic. They say this while turning their gaze to the sea, as if searching for traces of the extinguished abundance that allowed such a feat. Yet they see no evidence of it, as beyond that horizon are Cuba, the United States, and other countries receiving the precious sardines, which are increasingly scarce.
*This story was produced in partnership with the Ocean Reporting Network (ORN) program of the Pulitzer Center.
