Algeria aims to curb fish exports

In an attempt to boost domestic markets, the Algerian government plans to impose restrictions on the export of its sea produce.

By Mohand Ouali for Magharebia in Algiers - 05/01/11

Algeria seeks to tighten control over fishery exports to improve supplies to the internal market.

"Priority will be given to supplying the national market," Fisheries Minister Abdallah Khanafou said on December 29th.

Ministry official Nadir Bensegni explained that it was "a strategic choice", which became necessary in the face of rising consumption within the country, which rose from 89,000 tonnes in 1999 to 130,000 tonnes in 2009.

According to the ministry, the growing consumption was balanced out by increased imports. Algeria imported 25,000 tonnes of fish in 2009 at a cost of 3.9 billion dinars (40.2 million euros), compared with 8,000 tonnes at a cost of 2.8 billion dinars (29.2 million euros) in 2001.

Meanwhile, exports from Algeria, mainly to the European Union, rose from 1,647 tonnes in 2001, at a value of 431 million dinars (4.3 million euros), to 2,124 tonnes in 2009, worth 713 million dinars (7.2 million euros).

Under the new approach, Algeria also hopes to restrict the exploitation of its resources to national fishers, with catches established at around 221,000 tonnes a year until 2025.

The ministry also announced a new campaign to evaluate national fish stocks, planned for 2011, with the delivery of a new scientific vessel whose findings will be used to fix the size of the national fishing fleet.

According to the forecasts for the next 15 years, investment in the sector will rise to around 291.6 billion dinars (264 billion of which will come from private sources), with sales figures reaching around 82 billion dinars.

With sardines at 300 dinars per kilogram, shrimp at 1,200 dinars, skipjack tuna at 400 dinars, and whiting or red mullet at 800 dinars, there is no shortage of fish on the market stalls. Still, people are not buying.

"It's too expensive," said Mehdi. "A few years ago, sardines were poor people's meat. That's no longer the case these days. "

According to Larbi Allali, head of the Agriculture Committee, the rate of consumption in Algeria is only 5kg per person every year.

The offer is far from meeting the demand which only high prices can suppress. Ship managers were accused of selling their catch illegally in the open sea. They responded by saying that fish stocks are growing scarce in Algeria due to overfishing.

Chairman of the National Committee for Fishermen (CNMP) Hocine Bellout, however, expressed doubts about the arrangements to give priority to supplying the national market.

"It's too late, because foreign industrial vessels have made off with the resources. Depletion is such that we'll have to wait years for fish stocks to recover," he said, adding that "at this rate of depletion, by 2050, there will be little fauna and flora left in our coastal waters".

"At the moment, 450 marine species are disappearing from our seas," he said.

Aquaculture is one way to tackle the food security challenges but it is still in its earliest stages. According to official figures, 22 projects have been launched, while 450 sites have been identified as suitable for aquaculture.

To put an end to the import of young fish to re-stock national waters and sustain continental fishing, a mobile hatchery with capacity for 40 million young fish was built in Setif, and a second one is planned in Sidi Bel-Abbes.

Algeria is trailing behind other Maghreb countries in terms of fishing: Tunisia boasts the production of 650,000 tonnes per year, while Moroccan fishing sector reaches over a million tonnes.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/01/05/feature-02.