Fisheries, aquaculture sectors in Guyana, four ...

fish production, creating local jobs and maintaining sustainable stock levels.

Findings

Among the reports’ findings:

• Potential to make Côte d’Ivoire self-sufficient in fish production through a 10-year strategy to boost tilapia production from the current 6,000-8,300 tonnes per year to 68,000 tonnes by 2031 without extra burden on the environment. This would meet the entire national demand, through a more structured, local and sustainable value chain which will generate jobs, respect good environmental practices and increase resilience.

• A need to tackle declining catches of a variety of prawn, known as seabob, in Guyana, while promoting artisanal fisheries, particularly strengthening the position of women.

Key opportunities include strong demand from the US and European markets for more high-value seabob if biological stock issues can be addressed and bigger shrimps can be caught; and strong domestic demand for fresh seabob that can be sold to restaurants and supermarkets.

• How the Marshall Islands can generate more value and local jobs from the multi-million-dollar tuna trade, boosting it to $55 million by 2031 using one type of vessel alone and strengthening its position as a leading hub for tuna through transshipment and containerisation, with Marshall Islands-based companies incentivized to shift to new and more efficient loading machines for filling containers with tuna. This will bring down the cost of packing and shipping tuna in containers and allow the fish to be sorted, fetching a higher price. [see story and read the report]

• By tapping into Senegal’s oyster production and boosting the number of oyster farms, the study found great potential to meet local demand and support development of modern oyster farming. By 2031, the country aims to boost national production by 30 per cent to 21,000 tones to cover more than 80 per cent of domestic demand, with added value nearly tripling to $12.6 million, and full-time jobs nearly doubling from 6 500 to 11 000.

• Potential to leverage increasing consumer demand and market opportunities in Tanzania to improve sustainability of Lake Tanganyika’s sardine, sprat and perch fisheries and bridge the gender gap. Using better processing and cold chain techniques, improved business models with more participation by women and better compliance with fisheries legislation can help to boost value added in the sector by 12 per cent and increase fish processors’ incomes by an average of 42 per cent.

The FISH4ACP value chain analysis is based on 5, 200 interviewees, with more than 100 focus groups and 50 stakeholder workshops organised to validate findings. The five value chain assessment reports published (Côte d’Ivoire, Guyana, Marshall Islands, Sene- gal, Tanzania) helped to field test FAO’s value chain analysis method which will be published in the months to come. FAO’s work in fisheries and aquaculture promotes the effective management of aquatic living resources and the development of capacities to ensure equitable outcomes for all. It is geared towards bringing about a Blue Transformation, a vision committed to building sustainability and resilience.

Much of FISH4ACP’s work addresses the needs of artisanal fishers, fish farmers and fish workers. The value of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture for our food systems, our livelihoods and our environment has been celebrated through the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA), which draws to a close on 31 March. (FAO)