African fishery officials have a lot to learn from China — and now they’re coming here for training, at Beijing’s expense, to learn how to build their own fisheries business. That’s the word put out by a recent documentary on Chinese state TV. The program was aired by the provincial channel in the wealthy province of Jiangsu, a freshwater aquaculture hub that recently hosted a delegation of Congolese fisheries officials.
Flown in from Kinshasa in November by the Chinese government as part of its much-promoted aid and cooperation program with Africa, the 23 Congolese officials spent several weeks studying pond and cage aquaculture techniques in the city of Jingjiang on the Yangtze River.
While in Jingjiang the Congolese studied breeding of crab, perch and catfish as well as aquaculture methods like pre-fabricated ponds and river dams. These are methods which “simulate natural wild conditions for fish breeding,” according to the report on Jiangsu TV. The television show also detailed a net cage system that it claimed was an original Jingjiang invention. Identified only by the phonetic Chinese translation of his name, the head of the Congolese delegation (and head of the aquaculture division of the Congolese fisheries ministry) ‘Wuaqida Fulangsuowasi’ said he was keen to introduce Chinese methods and species on return to Kinshasa.
The visit is one of several that appear to be coming out of the China-Africa Fisheries Investment Conference held in Beijing in August by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Speakers at that conference – mostly Chinese academics and officials, along with diplomats from several African embassies in Beijing – stressed that China wants to help Africa to fulfill its potential as an aquaculture player.
The opportunities of Africa were spelt out by He Wenping, an academic at the China Academy of Social Sciences. Speaking at last year’s Sino-African fisheries conference in Beijing, she noted Africa has a “vast inland water surface” and “four of the world’s 19 rich fishing bases”. Describing the continent’s bounty, she listed shrimp and tuna in the Gulf of Guinea, and “turtles to be caught” off the coast of Tanzania. Such apparent bounty was in stark contrast with China’s situation, as outlined by secretary general of the China Africa Fisheries Union, Ye Xun: “our four major fishing grounds are famous but there’s no longer any fish in them,” he told delegates.
Africa seems receptive of China’s interest. Guinea’s ambassador to China Diare Mamady told the conference that the country’s waters boast 60,000 tons a year worth of fish, combined with 20,000 tons of shrimp and 10,000 tons of squid each year. The ambassador said his country was willing to grant “special rights” to a locally registered or multi-national firm to exploit Guinea’s fishing rights.
United Nations development bodies have been keen for China to transfer its aquaculture know-how to Africa. In 2011 the ministry of commerce here flew in over 100 officials from South Africa and francophone Africa for an eight-week freshwater aquaculture training program at the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences.
But it remains unclear if China’s priority is unselfish knowledge transfer (state media here regularly describe ties between China and Africa as ‘brotherly’) or access to Africa’s fishing waters. The main body tasked with improving Sino-African fisheries cooperation is a curiously Chinese affair and seems far more rooted to China’s overseas pelagic fishing ambitions than any aquaculture revolution in Africa. Strangely for a body with such a grand title, the China-Africa Fisheries Union doesn’t appear to have a website or a central office — at least none I can find after numerous attempts.
Interestingly, the key figures in the Union — all of who, curiously, seem to be Chinese — are easier to reach at their day jobs. The two individuals appointed as vice secretary general are from the Lianjiang Farsea Fisheries Co and the Hei Ying Asset Management Co, both firms in southeasterly Fujian province, home to some of China’s largest fishery companies and seafood processors. Likewise, chairman Chen Yonggui. Another board member is Wu Lin Zhu, secretary general of the Fujian Ocean Fisheries Association.
China has attracted much negative press for its approach to fishing in Africa — largely due to the lack of transparency in the reported scale of its catches — but Beijing has also had some gripes about Africa.
Surprisingly the state media reported comments attributed to Huang Baoshan, chairman of the China Overseas Fisheries Association (another hard-to-reach body) that called for an end to restrictions on Chinese fishery firms in remitting earnings to China and in bringing in Chinese workers. Huang claimed Chinese fishery firms are creating an average 50,000 jobs a year in Africa. It remains to be seen if any news jobs will be created in the newly trained-up Congolese aquaculture sector.
