Intra-regional trade in fish is encouraging—Unctad
World Fish programme manager Sloans Chimatiro has said the fish trade programme will help to improve food and nutritional security and reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa by enhancing the capacities of regional and pan-African organisations.
Speaking recently ahead of the fish trade programme in Kenya next month, Chimatiro said this will help in supporting member States to better integrate intra-regional fish trade into their development and food security policy agendas as research has shown that intra-regional trade in fish is encouraging.
“It is clear that despite major interventions and initiatives to promote fisheries development and intra-regional trade, sub-Saharan Africa still faces challenges in boosting fish trade, especially intra-regional trade to serve as a catalyst for sustainable economic growth and poverty alleviation.
“Complexity of rules and regulations governing intra-regional trade, lack of business and marketing skills, exporting of raw, low value fish and inadequate infrastructure; all these hamper Africa from optimising the benefits from fish trade,” he said.
He said the fish trade programme will enhance the capacities for trade among private sector associations, particularly of women fish processors and traders and aquaculture producers to expand trade opportunities through competitive small and medium scale enterprises and facilitate the adoption and implementation of appropriate policies, certification procedures, standards and regulations by key stakeholders participating in intra-regional trade.
The fish trade programme, which is being run jointly with World Fish, New Partnership for Africa Development (Nepad) and African Union–InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), will attract policy makers, stakeholders and researchers from the continent.
