by
Herminio Lima
Tembe[49]
Introduction
With coordinates extremes 10o 27’ North; 26o 52’ South; 30o 12’ East and 40o 51’ West, Mozambique has approximately 100 000 km2 of territorial waters and 562 000 km2 of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Stretching from the Rovuma River (at the northern border with Tanzania) to Ponta d’Ouro (at the southern border with South Africa), the coastline of Mozambique is 2 780 km long.
Inland waters comprise mainly the Niassa lake and the man made Cahora Bassa lake, as well as a number of rivers and small water bodies in which fishing activities and fish culture are undertaken. The lake Niassa, which is shared by other two countries (Tanzania and Malawi), is the third deepest worldwide lake (700 metres deep) and is famous for its large bio-diversity. The total surface of fresh water is 13 000 km2, including 21% of Lake Niassa shared by Mozambique.
Traditionally the Mozambican fishing fleets operate on coastal resources and to a lesser extent on some deep-sea species. However, a new fishery was started in the years 90 and developed very rapidly in the fresh water of the Cahora Bassa basin. That is the kapenta fishery which is today the third most important for fish exports.
The main fish resources can be grouped in three categories on the basis of their commercial value:
1) The crustaceans, accounting for 77% of the production value, include the shallow water shrimp, which is the key product, followed by deep-sea prawn. Furthermore, there are also crayfish, crabs and lobsters.
2) The finfish, accounting for 22% of the production value, includes large and small demersal species and most predominantly pelagic species.
3) The molluscs accounting for less than 1% of the production value, include species like squids, octopus, sea-cucumbers and bivalves (Figure 1).
Although the national fleets are not directly involved in the exploitation of the tuna fishery, Mozambique has been licensing distant waters fishing fleets from foreign operators on the basis of commercial agreements. The economic contribution of this fishery is that of the earnings from the charge of licence fees.
Figure 1: The main fish resources grouped in three categories on the basis of their commercial value.
The role of fisheries in the economy
There are two main categories of the Mozambican fisheries sector structure: one is the commercial fishery and the other the artisanal fishery. The commercial fishery integrates the big industry, mainly composed of joint-venture companies employing advanced fishing technology, and the small-scale enterprises dominated by Mozambican capitals. They are export-oriented producers and their activity is mainly concentrated on high valued resources such as shrimp, deep-sea prawns, crayfish and the fresh water kapenta. The artisanal fishery is the most important in the Mozambican context. Even though it only brings a little contribution to the export market, it is however the key producer for the supply of the national market and it represents over 80% of the total fish production. On the other hand the artisanal fishery is responsible for a massive job creation.
The commercial fishery is vertically integrated, which means that the producing company has the control of the whole production chain, from harvesting, processing through to marketing. This feature is more pronounced in the joint venture companies where the company production is often bound to the mother-company of the foreign partner. Commercial conflicts amongst the joint venture partners are originating from this situation when the national interest is not well served in relation to opportunities for free choice of export market based on best offers. However, the advantage of long-term secured market is not to be ignored.
The artisanal fishery is almost strictly horizontally integrated; every one specializes on one particular activity: the fishers will go fishing, middle-women take care of fish trading and so on. For so being, it provides for a larger involvement of people, which has an important impact on job creation and rent distribution. Fish processors buy fish from the fisherman on contractual schemes and undertake the fish processing activity, both for the national market and for export, this being the best solution for value addition on the artisanal fish produce.
Mozambique has no tradition in aquaculture but it is now becoming an important activity. After many years of research and training in this field, in attempt to develop the huge potential for shrimp farming, the first commercial harvest of farmed shrimp was recorded in year 2002. It has added upon the commercially farmed sea-weeds that has been produced for a number of years but with more intensity only in the recent years.
Relative to year 2002 the total value of fish production was over US$132 million, including wild catch and aquaculture production. This corresponds to 112 000 tonnes of caught fish and 850 tonnes of farmed product, including 600 tonnes of shrimp and 250 tonnes of see-weeds. Out of these figures 90 000 tonnes of caught fish and the total of sea-weeds were produced by the artisanal operators.
The value of exports was over US$ 96.5 million for a total of 20 250 tonnes of exported fishery products. The aquaculture produce contributed with over US$3 million of the total. The main market of destination of Mozambican exports were Europe with 62%, Regional market (South Africa, Zimbabwe and Malawi) with 25% and Asia (Japan) with 12%.
Figure 2: The main markets of destination of Mozambican exported products
This market structure reflects the vertical integration of the fishing industry, where the major producing companies are joint ventures with European partners. There are also joint venture companies with partners originating from South Africa, Japan and Zimbabwe.
The fisheries sector has been the key contributor to the balance of payment since after the independence in 1975. The export earnings have been in the range of 40 to 50% for many years, until the recent development of smelter industry in Mozambique. With the current 28% contribution to the total domestic exports (year 2002) fisheries is still heading the list of exporting sectors. The contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is in the order of 5%.
Institutional set-up, police and legislation
The fisheries sector has gone through a long process of institutional reforms since after the independence. As the importance of the fisheries for the national economic development was recognized, the ongoing concern has been about organizing the fisheries administration in order to secure the management and development of the fisheries sector, where different institutional structures have been implemented in pursuit of the above-mentioned objective. The Ministry of Fisheries was created in year 2000, when it was considered to split with agriculture. Since then, the ongoing process included functional analysis for improvements in operational efficiency, with special emphasis on decentralization and regional capacity building.
In 1994 the sector adopted a fisheries Master Plan, a tool for the Government authorities to identify the strategies that the State will adopt to achieve medium- and long-term development goals. The master plan was drafted in the context of general economic reforms implemented by the Government since 1987, characterized by growing privatization of the economy, scarcity of capital, lack of foreign exchange, a high rate of unemployment, difficulties in food supplies and deterioration of infrastructure. Furthermore, the master plan is an instrument to be used to acquaint the economic agents with intentions and expectations of the State, thereby furnishing a basis on which the private sector may plan its business operations and investments.
In 1996, the national Fisheries Policy was adopted and framed within the overall development objectives of the national economy, which are to provide for food security, sustainable economic growth, increase the net foreign exchange earnings, reduce unemployment rate and poverty alleviation. The sector specific objectives derived from the Fisheries Policy were drawn up to attain the following:
1. improved internal supply of fish food as a contribution in reducing the local food supply deficit;
2. increased earnings in foreign currency through increased export volumes of fish produce and value added products;
3. improved leaving conditions of the fishing communities through increased job opportunities and economic rent generation.
The legal basis of the fisheries is given by the Fisheries Law 3/90 of 26 September 1990 and subsequent regulations. The fisheries Law established that fish resources is State property, so being it is the State’s responsibility to secure sustainability of the fishing activities and resource management. The management regime of the fisheries is based on fishing licences, Total Allowable Catch (TAC)/quota allocations and limited entry regulation accomplished by closed seasons and mesh size regulation for the economically important fisheries. All fisheries are subject to licences, irrespective of their economic value, except for subsistence fishing activities.
A satellite-based vessel monitoring system (VMS) is under implementation at national level to provide for a better coverage of fleet operations in a cost-efficient way. This initiative is being supplemented by the ongoing SADC regional monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) project.
Another important management regime is being emphasized, particularly in the small-scale fisheries. That is the co-management system. Although these systems are known in Mozambique since before the independence, but as isolated initiatives, from mid 1990’s continuous and more consistent approaches begun to be observed with strong collaboration from some international organization (former World fish centre).
By now, about 30 community councils have been established in three coastal provinces of Nampula, Zambézia and Maputo and 3 co-management committees are operational in the Nampula and Inhambane provinces.
In order to make legal provisions for the new technological developments (VMS), coupled with the need to accommodate other requirements and obligations established in the regional Fisheries Protocol and in the international fisheries legislation, a review of the national maritime fisheries legislation is being made. The ongoing revision of the Maritime Fisheries Regulation has also been adapted in order to establish the legal framework of the co-management systems whereas the respective institutional framework is under development with the aim to promote mechanisms of sustainability of the community based organizations.
Economics and fiscal polices in fisheries
The fisheries Master Plan has established some parameters for the sector expenditures, based on an index of 2.5% of the fish production value for the sector recurrent expenditures. The master plan indicators estimated the fish production value to be in the range of US$182.2 million in year 2000 and US$209.3 million in 2005. Nonetheless, the production value recorded, as for 2002, was of US$132.0 million.
However, over the last three years the sector public budget has been limited within the range of US$1.5 to US$2.2 million, which corresponded to 1.15% and 2.0%. The earning directly generated from the fisheries activities, in the form of licence fees, levies, etc. has hit the figures of US$3.8 million in 2002 of which 40% has been conveyed to the State treasury, on the basis of the prevailing rules. The remaining 60% were retained within the sector to finance the internal expenditure but it has been insufficient to assist the sector internal affairs.
International financial assistance has been securing additional funds for investment in fisheries development and for institutional support. In the last three years this assistance has grown from US$6.8 million to US$13.5 million, including grant aid and credit funds. In fact, the sector has been highly depending on external aid for the implementation of the strategic plan defined in the fisheries Master Plan.
The fisheries earnings currently recorded are based essentially on licence fees. Charge of service tax for fish inspection and quality assurance has been implemented since 1999 but it can be considered highly subsidized because the amounts involved are too far from covering the service costs, including laboratory analysis and product certification.
On the other hand, the structure of the fees charged for the fishing licences is not adequate. It does not relate to the commercial value of the fish species per type of licence nor it reflects the prevailing management regimes, for instance, higher fees for highly demanded resources or for access to restricted fishing grounds. This issue is currently being addressed and a new regime is to be implemented in 2004 after approval by the relevant authorities.
The Government has been implementing important fiscal reform as part of the Economic and Social Restructuring Program adopted since 1987. The remarkable impacts of these reforms are also recognized within the fisheries sector, particularly regarding the costs derived from duty fees on import of raw material for the fisheries service industry and aquaculture. However, the fishing industry is constrained with the fuel taxation policy that is bringing up the price of fuel far above the international prices, thus affecting the competitiveness of the Mozambican fish produce in the international market. A levy is being charged on top of the fuel import price and it is destined to generate funds for the national road development program. The fishing industry, which uses no roads but boats at sea, claims to be overburdened with taxes not inherent to their activity. It should be noted that the fishing industry is the greater user of fuel in Mozambique, thus representing a huge contribution to the said funds.
Fisheries agreements
The development of a Mozambican industrial basis within the fisheries sector has been a guiding principle since after the independence, but it was recognized that this was a process that would have to develop along some time. To secure an economic use of the Mozambican fish resources it was considered to permit the operation of foreign fleets on the basis of fisheries agreements. The first fisheries agreement was signed with the Soviet Union (former URSS) in 1976, just one year after the independence, with a validity period of five years. In 1988 a fisheries agreement was signed with the European Community (EC). These agreements included in their scope, cooperation in respect to access to fishing rights, research and experimental fishing, etc. and the direct benefits that Mozambique received included financial assistance for fisheries development programmes, institutional capacity building, technical assistance, training and scholarship for Mozambicans in the international universities, etc.
The approval of the Fisheries Law in 1990 has changed the policy and institutional context as it was then imperative that the development of fisheries relative to the exploitation of fish stocks within the territorial waters of Mozambique should be reserved to national fleets. Mozambican registered joint venture companies were then present and operational with sufficient capacity to fish the available coastal stocks. Except for the highly migratory tuna stocks that Mozambican operators do not have tradition neither the technological and marketing capacity to embark on its exploitation, these are still licensed to foreign fleets under commercial agreements.
Ever since the Mozambican Government denounced the fisheries agreements with the former URSS and the EC in 1992 and 1993 respectively, a new fisheries agreement has been negotiated with the European Union. The negotiations have recently been successfully completed and a new agreement is to be implemented starting in 2004. In the regional context Mozambique holds fisheries agreements with Namibia and South Africa (under revision) and a memorandum of understanding with Mauritius.
Challenges and perspectives
In addition to the traditional distant water fleets operating on the tuna fishery Mozambique has, as from 2002, experimented the presence of new types of fleets calling in Mozambican ports demanding services of fish handling and export clearance. This is the deep-sea fishing fleet operating in the international waters or around coastal states EEZ. The rather short experience has, however, already shown that there is need for a better liaison amongst the national port and the fisheries authorities, as well as the need for a better exchange of communications with the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). This is in order to secure the observance of the provisions of the international legislation concerning responsible fishing activities and sustainability of the exploitation of deep-sea resources. There is a growing interest of Mozambique for subscription to CCAMLR as this may lead to increased rent capture into the national economy. But this can only be considered in the perspective of partnership between Mozambican entrepreneurs and foreign investors, given the limitation of the national technological capacity for deep-sea fishing.
The implementation of the new VMS technology and the future placement of patrolling ability for fisheries surveillance will improve the current country’s vulnerability to illegal fishing or the transit of illegal fishing fleets.
Very strong steps have been taken by the Mozambican Government on the basis of the commitment to harmonize the national fisheries legislation with the international fisheries conventions. The main fisheries legislation is being revised or completed and this will strengthen the Mozambican position in the international affairs, including an easier access to the main export markets.
Within the internal context of the fisheries management measures, the very strong step taken for reduction of the excessive fishing effort on the shallow water shrimp fishery should be underlined. It consisted of withdrawal of a number of industrial fishing licences and the extension of the closed season from two to three months, which was not a politically ease issue to deal with. The same matter has had a very strong bearing in the negotiations of the fisheries agreement with the European Union as the shrimp fishery was the principal interest of EU to be included in the cooperation package but that would never have the approval of Mozambique.
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[49] Director for Economics,
Ministry of Fisheries, Maputo |
