Interview with Mr Makthar Thiam, economist, seafood expert and director of the West African Trade Hub (WATH) Dakar Office. Makthar Thiam has been a seafood exporter for more than 15 years, managing also the activities of UPAMES (Senegalese Seafood Exporters Association) before joining the WATH. The WATH also initiated the West Africa Sustainable Seafood Alliance (WASSDA), with the ambition to preserve marine resources for future generations.

Q: Currently, what are the prospects for the marketing of west African fish products?

A: I can tell you, west African seafood products are well represented on international markets like Europe nowadays, including demersal species. But we also note a progressive shift towards west African regional markets, particularly Mali, Burkina Faso, Congo, etc. We need to keep in mind that the livelihoods of the region’s 400,000 fishermen, as well as those of the entire sector, depend on such regional fish markets. Currently, regional fish markets absorb approximately half of the exports from a country like Senegal, where catches are primarily composed of small pelagic, which comprise 80% of Senegalese artisanal fishermen’s catches.

Q: What about the competition from other sources of fish supplies in these two types of market?

A: I think rather that there can be, and there must be complementarity. Until now, our approach, at the WATH, is to help the sector’s stakeholders to satisfy the demands from both types of markets, regional and international, by helping them to comply with international, particularly sanitary, standards in ways that contribute to improving quality across the board, for all the products, whether they are intended for the local, regional or international markets.

A better access to markets can improve the living conditions of those whose livelihood depends on fishing. And here, we are talking of several million people in the region: women fish processors who take fish from the fishermen, as well as the fishmongers who sell it to the merchants and to the fish-processing units. This processing provides thousands of jobs, especially for women who prepare fish for export. You know, this is a fundamental issue when we discuss fisheries: the need to consider the whole supply-and-value chain.

Q: Another key issue for the west African seafood trade is to ensure the sustainability of fishery production. How do you take this dimension into account?

A: We can only but witness that fish resources tend to decrease and, their exploitation being not fully under control, there is a risk that these resources will collapse. To address this situation, the WATH always favoured, in parallel to the promotion of seafood-product exports, initiatives to raise awareness with the fisheries stakeholders about sustainable fisheries issues. Given the urgency, the WATH is now exclusively promoting activities and initiatives leading to sustainable seafood products.

We therefore created a public-private platform, called the West African Sustainable Seafood Alliance, WASSDA, which helps fishing stakeholders to exchange ideas and to find possibilities for partnership at regional and international levels, in order to carry out such a reflection together, on issues such as overfishing and illegal fishing.

Q: Concretely, what kind of initiatives do you take to help fishing companies to reach international markets?

A: Our objective is to connect buyers and producers, in order to facilitate marketing. To do that, we develop several approaches. One of them consisted in helping west African fishing companies to take part in international exhibitions, in order to put them in direct contact with buyers. We sponsored several west African companies to attend the Boston Seafood Show and the Brussels European Seafood for several years, with excellent results.

But today, as I was explaining, our new approach is centred on projects and initiatives which contribute to preserve marine environment and fish resources. We will, of course, continue to participate in events such as the Boston and Brussels Seafood, but with another approach: after having identified products coming from sustainable fisheries initiatives and projects, including those funded by USAID, we promote these products ourselves in these events, in order to link up these products with the markets. We also try to bring into the sub-region buyers who are sensitive to this sustainable fisheries approach.

Arranging the participation of west African products in this type of international events makes it possible for companies to promote fish products which are less known by international buyers, such as small pelagics, which form 51% of the fish stocks in west Africa, and which can be caught sustainably provided it’s done through appropriate initiatives. West Africa is the largest market in the world for these species but they are also very popular in Europe and in Asia. They are consumed fresh, or dried and salted, involving value-adding processes carried out mainly by women.

However, currently, even if the consumption of these species in the region is extremely important, and contributes to food security, there is much waste due to the very large quantities caught and the inadequate (development of) conservation and processing infrastructures. Why not look for new opportunities to market these small pelagics, in fresh form, in order to open new markets, both in the region (countries like Congo and Burkina Faso have an important demand) and internationally?

Q: The European fish market has the reputation of being a lucrative market. Is it a priority for west African fish producers?

A: It is true that it is an extremely lucrative market, but, at the same time, it is a market that is increasingly difficult to get access to. The rigorous European import regulations, for example sanitary regulations and the new regulation to fight illegal fishing, restrict access to this market for a great number of west African companies.

Another problem for our products is that in recent years fish prices have dropped in Europe, and, at the same time, European buyers are finding new sources of fish, notably from India and south-east Asia. Thus, and although the west African fish products are still very competitive in Europe, producers are increasingly interested to find new markets, whether in the region, in the United States or in Asia.

Q: You mentioned the new European regulation to fight IUU fishing (IUU Regulation). Does this regulation pose specific problems for west African countries?

A: This regulation has just come into effect, and I must say that, in west Africa, at least in the countries with significant exports to Europe, like Senegal and Mauritania, the private sector has mobilised to raise awareness with the authorities about the importance to do all we all can to comply with this new regulation.

We have already encountered some difficulties, for example, some Senegalese fish exporters complained because, for the Spanish market, all control operations for catch certificates are centralised in Madrid. This provokes delays for receiving the authorisations for the products to enter the Spanish market, with consequences for the quality of the products. Resulting financial losses are enormous.

Q: The European importers speak about a ‘paper tsunami’ to describe the new system of catch certification related to the IUU regulation. They explain, for example, that to import ten tonnes of fish coming from small producers, where each one must legally certify the origin of the fish catch, one would arrive at more than one thousand certificates. What do you think about this?

A: I don’t know which situation they are referring to but, in my experience, this kind of figure is abnormal. In the case of Senegal, one of the only countries where the small producers figure significantly in fresh fish exports to Europe, each pirogue will bring between 100 kgs and a tonne of products for export. Due to constraints imposed by most transport companies, companies are limited to sending three tones of fish per consignment. In this hypothesis, for each shipment we would have, at maximum, about ten certificates.

But I would like to underscore that we should not only see these regulations as obstacles. They can also give the necessary lever for making improvements within the whole sector. For example, today, traceability is a key issue for marketing fish products. If west African stakeholders in the fishing sector receive appropriate support, then the implementation of the IUU regulation can make it possible to improve traceability; improve registration of the pirogues; provide new possibilities for certification, etc

Q: How do the producers, the fishermen, perceive initiatives for sustainable fishing?

A: But, in some cases, they have taken, by themselves, interesting initiatives! In Senegal, for example, we have the fishing village of Kayar, where, since 1994, catch quotas are (self) implemented (by the fishermen). The primary reason, in 1994, was not environmental, but economic: the devaluation of the CFA led to a steep increase in production costs. By limiting the catches of high-value species intended for export, by imposing a minimum size for catches, the fishermen’s organisation did the right thing; the price of fish increased, the fishermen increased their incomes, and the resources were better managed.

Currently, most of Kayar fishermen’s catch is destined for local consumption, and what is left, i.e. the catch of high commercial value, is exported. These exports only account for 4 or 5% of the artisanal catch by volume but make up to 70% of the fishing income, benefiting everyone along the chain: fishermen, merchants, processors and exporters.

Since 2005, a joint regional programme financed by NGOs and cooperation agencies have supported this initiative, providing funds for the building of the fish-landing quays, processing infrastructures, warehouses, etc. That is also the future for the sector: to support and help develop initiatives taken by the fishermen and the actors along the chain for sustainable fisheries.