Namibia’s trade of frozen fish, excluding fish fillets and other fish culminated in Horse Mackerel emerging as the main exported product with earnings of N$1 billion, followed by Hake (N$96.9 million) and Tuna (N$59.2 million).
This was last week revealed in an agricultural report released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) last week.
On the import side, Sole was the top imported species with an import bill of N$39.8 million, followed by Tilapia (N$26.5 million) and Tuna N$14.1 million.
The report also reveals that the top three export markets for this class were Zambia with a share of 28.6 percent, followed by Democratic Republic of Congo with 25.2 percent while Mozambique registered a share of 17.7 percent. In terms of import, United States of America was the main source accounting for 34.4 percent of imports followed by China (24.3%) and South Africa (15.1%).
“The Fishing subsector is one of the important sectors in the economy as it has significant opportunities for output growth, value addition and employment creation. Furthermore, products produced in this subsector are important as a source of foreign earnings for the country. Namibia is a net exporter of ‘Fish and crustaceans, molluscs, and other aquatic invertebrates’ products. Namibia recorded a trade surplus to the tune of N$2.8 billion in Q2 of 2022, higher than N$2.7 billion recorded in Q2 of 2021,” the Agency said in the report adding that the same sector recorded trade surpluses for all quarters.
The ‘Fish fillets and other fish meat’ class recorded a trade surplus of N$1.4 billion for Q2 of 2022, an increase when compared to N$1.3 billion recorded for Q2 of 2021. For the quarter under review exports stood at N$1.4 billion, whereas import stood at N$4.6 million.
Under the class of ‘Fish fillets and other fish meat’, Hake was the top exported for Q2 of 2022 recording N$1.1 billion, followed by Salmon recording N$0.1 million. On the import side, Tilapia dominated the import class recording N$1.6 million, followed by Hake (N$1.5 million) and Salmon (N$1.1 million).
The top three export markets for this class were Spain (56.3%), France (10.1%), and Italy (9.5%). In terms of import, China took up a share of 31.1 percent, followed by South Africa (28.4%), and
Germany (22.0%).
On the other hand cuttle fish and squid’ was the top exported product with the value of N$64.1 million, followed by Oyster and Abalone with N$7.0 million and N$0.3 million, respectively. On the import side, ‘Cuttle fish and Squid’ was the leading species amounting to N$24.0 million, followed by Oyster in second place recording N$0.3 million and Mussels recording N$0.2 million in third place. In terms of export market, products of molluscs were mainly destined to Spain (76.2%), South Africa (15.8%) and Russia Federation (4.2%). Whereas import was mainly from Falkland Islands (77.6%), Spain (19.5%) and South Africa (1.7%).
Speaking about the report as a whole, the Agency said that the Agriculture, fishing and forestry sector registered a growth of 1.6 percent in real value added for Q2 of 2022, a slowdown when compared to a rise of 2.8 percent recorded in Q2 of 2021.
The sector fared way below the performance of the overall economy for the quarter under review. The slowdown observed in the sector was reflected in the forestry and fishing subsectors that registered slow growth of 4.7 percent and 0.9 percent compared to 47.1 percent and 16.5 percent in Q2 of 2021, respectively. However, the livestock and crop farming subsectors accelerated by 3.8 percent and 0.9 percent in Q2 of 2022 compared to declines of 5.2 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively, during Q2 of 2021.
Overall however, the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector continues to play an important role in the economy, contributing 12.7 percent to GDP during Q2 of 2022. The agriculture (crop and livestock) subsector recorded the highest contribution of 9.7 percent to GDP for the period under review. The report reveals that 55,029 tons of cereal grains were produced during Q2 of 2022, while 117,601 metric tons of fish species was landed during the reporting period.
“Namibia’s export earnings from commodities of ‘Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing’ sector amounted to N$4.1 billion whereas the import bill stood at N$1.2 billion for the second quarter of 2022. The Fisheries products accounted for the highest foreign earnings at N$3.1 billion followed by the agriculture commodities that brought income of N$652.3 million. In terms of import, Agriculture commodities topped the list with an import bill of N$776.5 million during the second quarter of 2022. For the period under review, the food inflation continued to increase at a faster pace than other items in the CPI basket, however when compared to the corresponding period of 2021, food inflation recorded a slow growth,” NSA said in the report.