With a view to safeguarding the important role that marine capture fisheries play with regard to employment, income, food security and achieving the Millennium Development Goals, up-to-date information on the sector is needed to monitor the effect of management measures, regulations and government policies on its economic and financial health.
This paper presents the findings of country level studies on the economic and financial performance of marine capture fisheries. The studies were carried out in 13 South American, Caribbean, European, African and Asian countries during 2002 and 2003. The 94 most important fishing fleets operating in these countries are covered. In 2002, these countries accounted for about 62 percent (South America), 8 percent (Caribbean), 42 percent (Europe), 24 percent (Africa) and 24 percent (Asia) of the marine catch in their respective regions, which again accounted for 89 percent of the global marine catch.[1] The studies update the findings of previous studies carried out in 1999-2000 and 1995-1997 respectively, which are reported in FAO Fisheries Technical Papers 377[2] and 421[3].
The studies carried out in 2002 and 2003 show that all 94 types of fishing vessels had a positive gross cash flow and fully recovered their operating costs. When also considering capital costs, i.e. the costs of depreciation and interest, 88 of the 94 types of vessels, or 94 percent, showed a net profit after deducting these costs.
When comparing the fishing fleets of countries that were studied in both 1999-2000 and in 2002-2003, significant improvements in financial and economic performance can be seen in the Republic of Korea, Germany and Argentina, partially because of reduction and limitation of fleet capacity. In the other countries covered by the study, the overall picture remained similar, with some fleets improving their performance and others achieving less favourable results.
The overall sustained positive earnings situation in 2002 and 2003, as compared with 1999 and 2000, is to be seen against the background of an increase in fuel prices, an important cost component of capture fisheries, of about 9 percent[4] between the two reporting periods, and of a decline in fish prices of up to 5 percent.
This paper also contains the findings of two recent empirical studies on fishing efficiency related to twin-rig and single-rig trawling that were presented at the 2004 Session of the FAO/ICES Working Group on Fishing Technology and Fish Behaviour.
Tietze, U.; Thiele, W.; Lasch, R.; Thomsen, B; Rihan,
D.
Economic performance and fishing efficiency of marine capture
fisheries.
FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 482. Rome, FAO. 2005.
68p.
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[1] FAO. 2004. FAO yearbook
of fishery statistics. Capture production, 2002. Vol. 94/1. Rome. [2] FAO. 1999. Economic viability of marine capture fisheries. Findings of a global study and an interregional workshop, by J.-M. Lery, J. Prado & U. Tietze. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 377. Rome. [3] FAO. 2001. Techno-economic performance of marine capture fisheries, by U. Tietze, J. Prado, J.-M. Lery, R. Lasch. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 421. Rome. [4] Calculated from differences of Conventional Regular Gasoline Prices (CRGPs) in Singapore and Rotterdam between 30 December 1999 and 31 December 2002. |
