A new pan-African project has been launched to strengthen the continent’s great potential for increased trade in fish.
Africa, a continent that is endowed with
lots of fish resources in oceans and rivers, lakes, floodplains and
fish farms, accounts for just 4.9 percent of the global fish trade.
More efficient trade could significantly
improve income and nutrition for millions of Africans, particularly
those 12.3 million that are directly employed in the fisheries and
aquaculture sectors.
Trade is constrained by inadequate
market and trade infrastructure and poor policy implementation. High
transport costs, complex and unaligned trade rules and poor market
information also prevent Africa from optimising the social and economic
benefits available.
Stephen J Hall, director general,
WorldFish, said: “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. Per capita
consumption has fallen, despite Africa’s great abundance of aquatic
resources. Fish trade will create the foundations for a more solid,
productive and sustainable building-up of this great, continent-wide
resource.”
Hamady Diop, programme manager,
fisheries and aquaculture, NEPAD, said: “Recent years have seen
increased growth in aquaculture. Fish Trade will provide the opportunity
to learn from past successes and failures and governments will be given
the right information to be able to create the incentives and
infrastructure that investors need to meet local demand and penetrate
higher value-added export markets.”
Steve Wathome, programme manager,
agriculture and rural development delegation of the European Union to
Kenya, European Commission: “The EU is convinced that the Fish Trade
programme will significantly contribute towards the fisheries sector in
Africa. 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.”
Ahmed El Sawalhy, director, AU-IBAR:
“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. 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.”
Fish Trade will work in four ‘corridors’
to generate information on the structure, products and value of
intra-regional fish trade and its contribution to food security in
sub-Saharan Africa. Recommendations will be prepared on policies, fish
certification guidelines and quality and safety standards, as well as
regulations. A second stage will focus on strengthening the trade
capacities of private sector associations; in particular of women fish
processors, women traders and all aquaculture producers, in order for
them to make better use of expanding trade opportunities through
competitive small- and medium-scale enterprises.
Finally, Fish Trade for a Better Future
will support adoption and implementation of appropriate policies, fish
certification procedures, standards and regulations by key stakeholders
in intra-regional trade.
No comments:
Post a Comment