Wet-Landed Horse Mackerel Association’s chairperson, Jason Angala has said that their sector, which processes fish on land and employs more than 80% of the total workforce in the Horse Mackerel industry, is under tremendous pressure.
The frozen on board sector provides less than 20% direct employment opportunities but enjoys the lion’s share of the Horse Mackerel (HM), notes Angala.
“The current price of diesel certainly carries a lot of weight; however the white elephant in the room is that the wet HM sector, from the beginning of the Government’s initiative through the NDP5 policy, was not encouraged with support. The wet HM sector needs exclusive zones, just like everywhere else in the world, to fish successfully. It has been proven that smaller wet fishing vessels cannot operate in the same areas as large freezing vessels because their catching method is different resulting in wet vessel operations being unsuccessful especially during winter months.
“To date the wet HM sector has been trying to negotiate with the Government and various line Ministers without any success. For example: Freezer vessels drag large nets 24/7 over the sea area where HM occurs and freezes everything that lands up in the net. Smaller wet vessels must locate a shoal of fish first before putting their net in the water to catch the specific shoal. This way of catching is much better for the fishing grounds but currently impossible for wet fishing vessels which provide the greater majority of employment in the HM sector,” Angala decried adding that MFMR’s Department of Research shows that the vast majority of shoals of HM occur within the 200m depth where catches are prohibited.
According to the Namibian NDP5, the goals are mainly aimed at formerly disadvantaged, women, youth, marginalized communities and disabled.
“The wet HM sector can fully meet the needs and provide much more work than is currently done by the only 3 companies that support the NDP5 initiative. The wet HM sector is also a threat to the freezing at sea sector because according to the NDP5, freezing quota will have to be reduced to only 30% of the TAC (Total Allowable Catch) of HM from the current approximately 70+% freezer. This is going to undermine the extraordinary profits of the frozen vessels from which only a limited number of Namibians benefit. Once wet HM has grown to 70%, 10,000 new jobs can easily be created directly and 1,000’s indirectly due to land services for the industry,” Angala explained.
The majority of freezer vessels transfer their catches at sea to cargo ships that transport them to other countries without any infrastructure on land benefiting from it and thus Namibia loses millions in extra income and taxes, in addition to job opportunities, Angala further noted.
“Another notable advantage of processing on land is value addition which provides 1,000’s of jobs as well as the creation of new markets. Freezer vessels only do bulk packaging in 20-30kg cartons which basically only supply informal markets elsewhere. On land, various packages are already packed in 800g, 1kg, 2kg for supermarkets, as well as 5, 10 and 20 kg cartons. Then there is the ideal option for canned horse mackerel and more. The product variation is much better the consumer.
“Currently, the onshore sector provides 7-10 times more work than the freezer vessels per ton quota and the current wet sector needs intervention from the Namibian Government in order to continue the noble initiative of the Government in relation to job creation as well as to protect the already N$1 .5 billion invested in the wet sector. There are currently 1,300 workers in the wet HM sector who are now sitting at home due to inoperative vessels. How long can the factories afford to pay workers without any income for months on end?” Angala highlights.
He goes on to note that the Association will continue to knock on the door of leaders until a solution is found.
“This will have to start with exclusive zones as well as in-depth research of where the source is during 12 months of the year. Furthermore, a good understanding of the operation and benefits of wet HM vessels and onshore processing plants, considering vital contribution towards food security for SADC.
“It is extremely important to compare the Horse Mackerel sector with Hake in Namibia: Hake previously caught 100% with freezing vessels which provide little work and was reformed to 70% wet and on land processing in just 5 years due to Government initiative. It created around 15,000 new jobs. This meant that freezer vessels had to be scaled down and wet factories had to be built. Value adding was created and investment was promoted in Namibia. It is not unique; it is the trend around the world where up to 100% is transformed from freezer to wet with a high success rate. It is possible in the Namibian HM sector but an iron hand from Government as custodians of our fish resources is needed for the benefit of many unemployed Namibians, especially those classified under the NDP5,” concluded Angala.