During the 2024 edition of the Aquaculture Africa Conference, which was held last November in Hammamet, Tunisia, aquaculture executives founded the Africa Aquaculture Business Leaders Network (AABLN) to accelerate the sustainable growth of fish farming across the continent.
The establishment of the AABLN is being guided by the U.K.-based Global Salmon Initiative (GSI), a leadership initiative focused on improving sustainability in the farmed salmon sector, through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
SeafoodSource spoke to GSI CEO Sophie Ryan on this new initiative and how GSI aims to ensure its success.
SeafoodSource: What is the role of GSI in the formation of AABLN and in ensuring the new entity lays a strong foundation in supporting growth within Africa’s aquaculture industry?
Ryan: I think it’s important to ground ourselves in the basics here. It is widely acknowledged that we need more high-quality, affordable, nutritious food produced in Africa for Africa.
We need food production that is sustainable and climate-resilient, and we need opportunities for small- and medium-sized farming operations, as well as large businesses.
Aquaculture has the potential to meet all these needs, but at this moment in time, it is not meeting its potential. The obstacles to meet this potential vary by region, but often include access to finance, infrastructure, skills, and technology; all of these can be solved. Some may be solved by individual companies, but others can only be addressed fully if the sector works together. That is the role of GSI.
We are providing the support through facilitation and secretariat services to bring African aquaculture business leaders together so they can find a common purpose in meeting this potential and define plans for collective action to get there.
Our role is to share both our expertise in pre-competitive platforms as well as what lessons learned from the salmon sector can be transferred to a developing sector.
The AABLN stakeholders will determine what they want to work on and how they want to approach things, and for the network to succeed, it will depend upon their personal commitment and inputs to the shared vision.
SeafoodSource: Where else has the GSI model worked, and is Africa’s aquaculture market ready to adopt its pre-competitive collaboration model?
Ryan: The GSI model is a highly effective model based on aligning companies under a clear objective, pooling knowledge and expertise, and creating a platform for discussion to help identify and implement sustainability improvement strategies at speed and scale.
The GSI model has already been replicated in the Ecuadorian shrimp sector through the Sustainable Shrimp Partnership, within Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS), and now in Africa.
We believe African companies are more than ready to adopt the model and have already begun doing so. CEOs in the sector see the potential of the sector, but acknowledge there are a number of shared challenges which may be limiting their development. These challenges, whether access to finance, access to technology, or disease management, are all common, and by working together, they are better positioned to find solutions and make changes for the long-term future of the sector.
SeafoodSource: What do you see as some potential challenges for a group of companies, such as those that have come together under AABLN, in embracing the GSI model?
Ryan: The first challenge is acknowledging the shift in perspective that’s needed.
AABLN businesses are used to competing on all fronts, and now we are asking them to collaborate on specific matters. For this to work, they must trust one another and incorporate shared commitment and accountability into shared goals. This is why it's so important to have a clear objective, work plans, and areas of focus, as well as active engagement from everyone involved, so everyone can clearly see what we collaborate on and why.
The GSI model seems particularly well suited to Africa where the concept of community is so well understood.
SeafoodSource: What are some of the benefits AABLN members could see from the model, especially when some of the members are competing for a share of the same aquaculture market.
Ryan: There is growing acknowledgement of the role of sustainable aquaculture in meeting global goals for nutritious, sustainable, and climate-resilient foods.
Our members have been working collectively on sustainability areas including certification – working toward the Aquaculture Stewardship Council standard, optimizing fish health and welfare, improving sustainability sourcing of feed ingredients, and aligning greenhouse gases data to support mitigation efforts.
The benefits of working collectively on such topics is that by pooling knowledge and expertise, you have access to new perspectives and new approaches, can learn more quickly what is working and what isn’t working, and avoid duplication of efforts. It supports companies in taking on big challenges with more resources, which better positions them to make smart choices.
