Manda SA – a Malagasy, family-owned fish company – has for more than two decades partnered with Madagascar’s fishing community, government, and private sector to address several challenges, mainly the lack of training as well as the limited access to fishing equipment and export markets.
The company, which was founded by Arthur and Bakoly Razakanavalona, invests in thriving small fishing enterprises, which are at the heart of Madagascar’s fishing industry and are the reason for the company’s partnership with small artisanal fishers. The arrangement enables the fishers with access to professional training in sustainable fishing, educating them on the proper handling of catch to ensure quality and compliance with international best practices.
For nearly 25 years, Manda SA has helped some of the more than 500,000 workers in Madagascar’s fisheries and seafood sector get basic training on fish freezing and how to achieve and retain the national and international fishing standards for quality products in addition to providing them with boats and nets.
According to Bakoly, who is Manda SA’s general administrator, the company has a ready market for the catch supplied by small scale fishers, who are paid instantly, provided they meet the set fishing standards and comply with the international procedures.
“Manda SA is working with Madagascar’s Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries to promote our huge marine and coastal resources and particularly our quality fish that is suitable for high value export markets such as Europe,” Bakoly told SeafoodSource at this year’s Seafex Show in Dubai.
She said Manda SA, which also operates the Manda Seafood restaurant in the Malagasy capital of Antananarivo, is encouraging more small fishers to form fishing groups for easy training and access to financing and marketing of their catch, despite existing challenges of poor access to credit, prevalent use of dilapidated or lack of fishing vessels and equipment, and persistent illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing along the 5,600 kilometer coastline.
“Manda SA usually picks a few of the fishers from among the groups for training as trainers who then go back to their groups and teach members of critical fisheries aspects such as sustainable fishing, marketing of their catch and good financial management,” said Bakoly.
She said Manda SA has been participating in many international seafood events not only to find business partners, but also to promote Malagasy fish to high value markets, which are greatly needed “if our fisheries sector is to grow even more,” she added.
“Madagascar has a diversity of fish types that I’m sure would do well in the international market but the challenge has been how to support the fishing groups and communities with the much needed finance and fishing equipment in the short term,” Bakoly said. “We are also working with women including wives of fishermen on alternative income generating activities that for example utilizes locally available raw materials such as the marine vegetation.”
Apart from Europe, Manda SA, which continues to specialize in frozen fish exports, has sustained a fish export market share in Mauritius, Singapore, and South Africa, according to a previous report.
A previous report by USAID, recommended alternative livelihoods for Madagascar’s fishing communities “to deal with declining fisheries and food insecurity as well as poverty and climate change.”
Photo courtesy of Shem Oirere
