It's early morning in
Mogadishu and fisherman in the
Somali capital are bringing their catch in to the harbor.
Somalia's 3,
300 kilometre coastline, the continent's longest - gives the country's fishermen access to over 400 different species of fish in both the
Indian Ocean in the east, and
Gulf of Aden in the north.
But decades of insecurity has made it difficult for most fishermen here to cash in on their country's rich fish stocks.
One of the mostly artisanal and small-scale fishermen that operate in Somalia's waters,
Mohammad Muzee said that "The equipment we use, like the boats, was inherited from our fathers. They are not new, our fathers used them and now we are using them. You would not dare get into any of them, because they're very old and you would be scared for your life, but we use them because that's how we make our living
."
In the 1980's the government of former president
Siad Barre created fishing cooperatives and legislation to regulate and develop the sector, as well as manage its fleet of five fishing trawlers operating in
Kismayo and its other ports.
But like most of country's infrastructure and economy, the fishing industry was devastated during the civil war that followed
Barre's ouster in
1991.
Pirates took charge of many stretches of Somalia's coastline and foreign trawlers were seen fishing here illegally as the transitional government battled al Qaeda-linked group al
Shabaab for control of the country.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (
AMISOM) was deployed in
2007 and has supported troops serving under Somalia's new government force al Shabaab out of Mogadishu and most of central and southern Somalia.
The busy Hamarwayne market in Mogadishu managed to stay open during decades of conflict and is now experiencing a boom due to the increased security.
The market and its growing number of customers provide a lifeline for fishermen, traders and even porters who hand carry the day's catch of kingfish, tuna, sailfish and sharks from the shore to eagerly waiting fishmongers.
Ahmed Moumin Ekar said that "
Sometimes it's a lot, at other times its only a little. When the catch is small, we get 12
US dollars per kilogram for kingfish, but when we've got a lot, its 6 dollars per kilogram.
Today, the kingfish are very few and it's always in great demand."
Somalia's new
Minister of Natural Resources,
Abdirizak Omar Mohamed, says the industry's potential to bring in much-needed revenue and create jobs is largely untapped.
The Minister said, "We don't have coast guard to guard our sea, so because of that there is a lot of illegal and unregulated fishing taking place in our sea. We have nor the means nor the capacity to do anything at this time, but its within the policy of the government to address that issue."
At a small fish-processing factory in the heart of the Mogadishu, a private company has been demonstrating the economic possibilities of the industry for 20 years. The Somali
National Fishing Company operates its own fleet and also buys from local fisherman and then prepares and packs the fish for export.
The company hopes that improved security will now help improve the poor transportation and storage facilities that caused it to lose customers in the past.
Hassan Warsame
Noor, the Marketing &
International Relations Manager for the Somali National Fishing Company said that "We were sending to up to five countries before, now we have minimized only to one country
Turkey. Since there is no transport from here to Turkey, although there is no transport from here to Turkey, yes there is a
Turkish airline, but they don't have a fridge and cargo site in that airline. Because of that what we do is that we take the fish from Mogadishu to
Nairobi, our product transits in Nairobi for sometimes hours an hours, after that we get a flight from Nairobi to Turkey. Every person can imagine how it's difficult to keep the fish for that time".
The company and it's small-scale partners have not had it easy, but their tenacity and potential for exponential growth, are evidence that Somalia's fishing industry is yet another area where investors could focus their efforts as their country rebuilds infrastructure, and an economy frozen by over two decades of conflict and neglect.
- published: 23 Mar 2013
- views: 17652