An international nonprofit research organization is coordinating a new project funded by the European Commission to improve fish trade in Africa.
WorldFish is implementing the program, “Fish Trade for a Better Future,” along with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR).
Right now, according to WorldFish, Africa’s seafood industry employs 12.3 million people in fisheries and aquaculture, yet accounts for just 4.9 percent of global fish trade. Various factors impede development of fish trade with Africa, including high transport costs, complex and unaligned trade rules and poor market information.
“Africa has the potential to develop its fisheries and aquaculture to play a much greater role in promoting food security, providing livelihoods and supporting economic growth,” said Stephen Hall, WorldFish’s director general. “FishTrade will create the foundations for a more solid, productive and sustainable building-up of this great, continent-wide resource.”
The project will focus on policies, fish certification guidelines, quality and safety standards and regulations throughout African nations. In a later stage, the program will focus on strengthening the trade potential of private associations for processors, traders, aquaculture producers and other sectors.
“The EU is convinced that the FishTrade program will significantly contribute toward the fisheries sector in Africa,” said Steve Wathome, program manager for the agriculture and rural development delegation of the EU to Kenya, European Commission. “Trade has been identified as one of the major challenges affecting growth of the fish sector in Africa, with challenges being notable with regard to intra-Africa trade and accessing global markets.”
The program will ultimately provide recommendations for improvements in policy and procedures, and will support adoption and implementation of those improvements.
“Trade plays a major role in the fishery industry as a creator of employment, food supplier, income generator, and contributor to economic growth and development in several African countries,” said Ahmed El Sawalhy, director of AU-IBAR. “Domestic and intra-regional trade of fish (both marine and inland waters) is important with great potential for enhancing regional integration and food and nutrition security. However many AU Member States still face several constraints in improving their fish trade and marketing sector. This project will enable alignment of policies at the continental level and open-up fish trade that we believe will have a strong effect on the alleviation of poverty in some of our poorest regions.”
