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
South Africa has jailed two Chinese nationals suspected to be part of a global abalone-poaching syndicate.
The South China Morning Post reported that another suspect, a Malawian national, was also handed a one-year prison sentence as South Africa steps up efforts to reduce illegal seafood trading, which has been blamed for the loss of more than 96 million individual abalone between 2006 and 2016, with 90 percent of the smuggled sea snails ending
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Cape Town, South Africa-based seafood company Oceana Group has issued a voluntary trading update for the 12 months ended 30 September, 2021, indicating losses for the full year – but a partial recovery in the second half of 2021.
The update comes after the company alerted shareholders and its customers of a potential delay in the publication of its financial results for the 12 months ended 30 September, 2021. The update is yet to be
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The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) has called for an urgent special session on 29 November to discuss the validity of a disputed vote on a proposal by Kenya on the improvement of the management of drifting fish-aggregating devices (dFADs).
The alleged voting malpractice during the June 2021 IOTC session saw the proposal – PropE_Rev2, co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Mozambique, Pakistan, Somalia, South Africa, Indonesia, and
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Namibia is taking its fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing a notch higher by planning to develop and use unmanned aerial vehicles in the detection and prevention of IUU, according to a New Era report.
An ongoing study is exploring the viability of deploying drones in monitoring, control, and surveillance activities aimed at combating IUU within Namibia’s exclusive economic zone. The Ministry of Fisheries
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Tunisia’s Interprofessional Group of Fishing Products (GIPP), a public economic agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, Hydraulic Resources, and Fisheries, is predicting more than 100 percent growth of the North African country’s aquaculture industry by 2030 …
Photo courtesy of the Food and Agriculture
… Read MoreTrygg Mat Tracking, Global Fishing Watch project supports African countries tightening port controls
African countries battling illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) should embrace tighter port-control procedures to deny the illicit catch a market and cut off perpetrators from their profits, according to nonprofit Trygg Mat Tracking.
Trygg Mat Tracking Executive Director Duncan Copeland said port authorities should have capacity to “make rapid risk assessments to inform the key decisions on whether to let a vessel into port,
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The former CEO of the state-owned National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) has told a High Court in Namibia he never received direct instructions on how funds earned from sale of the company’s fishing quotas were to be disbursed.
Mike Nghipunya has been charged with 30 counts including racketeering, contravening Namibia’s Anti-Corruption Act, conspiracy, fraud, theft, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, as part of
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Aquaculture investment fund Aqua-Spark has announced plans to invest in catfish-producing companies in sub-Saharan-African markets as part of its strategy to support the growth of the region’s aquaculture industry.
In a statement Aqua-Spark said it is seeking to invest in large-scale producers that could become platforms for growth for the broader aquaculture industry through local outgrower programs.
“Both in Nigeria as well as in
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South African seafood company Oceana Group has announced a delay in the publication of its latest financial results for the year ended 30 September 2021 and issue of financial statement to shareholders. The delay means Financial Results will not be published at the end of November 2021 as is customary, the company said in a statement to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which requires financial results be published within three months and audited
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A new investigation has exposed how China is defying international law to carry out illegal fishing operations in Somali water, while subjecting foreign crew to mistreatment.
A new Environmental Justice Foundation report claims six Chinese fishing vessels entered Somali waters without permission and used prohibited fishing gear, such as trawl nets, in fishing zones that have been reserved for Somali fishing
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