Shem Oirere is a Kenyan journalist who previously worked for daily newspapers as a general news correspondent, business reporter and sub-editor before turning to full-time freelancing. For the more than 20 years, he has covered various sectors of Africa’s economy including agriculture, food processing, and maritime industries. A graduate of the University of South Africa, he has traveled within and outside Africa covering various industry events that have a bearing on the continent’s economy on behalf of different international consumer and trade publications. He currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya.
Author Archive
Cape Town, South Africa-based fish-processing company Oceana Group posted a 29 percent year-over-year increase in revenue for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2023, driven by an increase in global prices on nearly all of its products – particularly fish oil.
Oceana Chairman Mustaq Brey and CEO Neville Brink said in a joint statement issued on 27 November that a weaker South African rand that aided in export value, and a surge in revenue
… Read More
The high capital expenditure and energy consumption of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) is hampering uptake of the fish-farming technology in many emerging markets.
BioMar Group Global Marketing Director Katherine Bryar told SeafoodSource that RAS technology remains expensive venture that also requires advanced knowledge of complex systems for it to be viable. The significant upfront costs and cutting-edge nature of much of
… Read More
Cape Town, South Africa-based fish-processing company Oceana Group has recorced a positive performance within its canned fish sector, as well as its fishmeal and fish oil business, thus far in 2023. Suleiman Salie, the group’s managing director of its canned fish brand Lucky Star, talked to SeafoodSource on the organization’s recent performance and how the group navigates the stringent regulations its export markets place on all
… Read More
Certifications are essential credentials for improving fisheries, reducing instances of illegal fishing, increasing the effective use of fish waste, and achieving food security, according to Libby Woodhatch, the executive chair of London, U.K.-based marine ingredient certification body MarinTrust.
During this year’s edition of IFFO – The Marine Ingredients Organization’s annual conference in Cape Town, South Africa, which took
… Read More
The growing fishmeal and fish oil industry in West Africa has mainly supported export market growth, leaving domestic seafood markets with dwindling amounts of fish available for human consumption, environmental degradation, and decreased income for fishers and factory workers in Mauritania and Senegal, according to a new human rights impact assessment.
Senegal and Mauritania account for 1.12 percent and 0.22 percent of global fishmeal and fish
… Read More
Saudi Arabia is on a mission to increase its aquaculture output dramatically by 2030, and as part of this drive the country’s largest aquaculture firm, the National Aquaculture Group (NAQUA), plans to increase its seafood output by more than 400 percent over the next seven years.
Despite the country’s access to rich fishing grounds along the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coastlines, Saudi Arabia’s domestic seafood market has a
… Read More
Though there have been continued attempts to expand African aquaculture efforts, the continent’s global contribution to total production remains just 1 percent, with financing remaining a major challenge in expanding the sector.
Lahsen Ababouch, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) senior advisor on fisheries and aquaculture, talked to SeafoodSource during this year’s Marine Ingredients Organization (IFFO) annual
… Read More
South Africa has revived legislation, which fell into governmental limbo nearly five years ago, that aims to support an ambitious aquaculture sector expansion under the government’s National Development Plan – an economic blueprint meant to limit poverty and inequality in the country by 2030.
On 13 September, South Africa’s government approved the publication of the delayed bill for public comment in a government bid to pull
… Read More
The Seychelles has approved several fishing industry policies and regulations in quick succession to spur private investment in key seafood segments and enhance the sustainability of its fishery resources.
The East African island nation's fishing industry regulator, Seychelles Fisheries Authority (SFA), also recently announced the modernization of the nation’s aquaculture policy, which – in tandem with the new policies and
… Read More
