Behind a thriving fisheries
industry in Somalia are the spirited efforts of a Danish-Somali NGO.
Fairfishing has not only played a key role in giving Somali pirates a
new lease of life through fishing but created thousands of jobs for the
locals, boosted nutrition and birthed a new generation of women
entrepreneurs.
At the
height of piracy along the Indian Ocean waters and the Gulf of Aden,
approximately 237 cases were reported of pirates holding shipping crews
hostage in exchange for ransom, events that gripped the world. 2011, the worst year, saw the world spend about $6.6 billion in insurance, maritime security and global naval activities.
Despite Somalia having the largest coastline in mainland Africa, fishing hasn’t been fully embraced. This, stemming from the civil war of 1991 that
brought anarchy and lawlessness leading to the opening up of Somali
waters to uncontrolled fishing by foreign trawlers. This took a toll on
fish stocks, pushing the local fishermen out of business. Those who were
good at fishing then joined the civil war disrupting an entire
industry. This, coupled with the 2004 tsunami and the intermittent droughts saw locals turn to livestock farming, predominantly camel and sheep rearing.
But
the potential of the fisheries industry, and by extension, the blue
economy abounds. Before the civil war, Somalia earned on average $15
million from export of fishery products. Currently the East African
nation has the potential to sustainably harvest up to 200,000 tonnes of
fish each year, more than six times what is currently fished according
to Food and Agriculture Organisation.
This potential informed the intervention by Fairfishing which
set up operations in 2011 in the two semi-autonomous areas of
Somaliland and Puntland that have relatively stable governments.
The
idea has been to provide fishermen with ice at a cost to keep their
fish fresh. They are able to sell their fish in the market for up to $6
from 50 cents that they initially did. The organisation has also been
running training programmes to locals which include swimming, fishing,
repairing nets, making boats, cleaning, filleting, storing, preparing
and cooking fish. These interventions have spawned a series of
enterprises and connected more than 3,000 locals to employment. Women
run shops and hotels with some businesses now mulling selling their
stocks to neighbouring countries like Djibouti.
FairFishing has also funded construction of fishery stations, fish markets and a boat workshop.
It
has donated solar powered freezers and established processing
facilities complete with weighing stations. Trucks and local fishermen
buy the ice from these facilities and store their stocks in the
community freezers as they source for markets. The locals charge for
this and the proceeds have been used to build schools.
According to a 2018 report by
Nordic Consulting Group, the intervention by Fairfishing has seen
locals’ income grow to 400 per cent since 2013. Following the
establishment of the fish station, there has been up to 1200 active
fishers and 916 tonnes of ice sold in 2018 alone. The monthly average
income for boat owners has also risen to $1,288 in 2018 from $264 in
2012.
“The volume of fish that are landed at the Fairfishing
station have increased more than five times between 2014 and 2018. The
provision of ice at an affordable price and storage capacity is central
to the success of the organisation as it has allowed the fishermen to
boost their capacity to maintain the freshness of the fish both while in
the boats at the sea and in the land. As the fish are washed and
stored, in a clean environment, it also means that the quality of the
fish is improved”, read a section of the report.
There
has also been a considerable drop in the number of pirate attacks off
the Horn of Africa with eight cases reported in 2017 and only three in
2018.
The fishing project is also providing the much needed
nutrition in a country that has been hit by drought. With livestock
contributing over 30 percent to Somaliland’s GDP, the constant dry
spells and weather vagaries have hit the industry hard. The 2017 drought
for example killed more than half a million of Somaliland’s goats,
sheep and camels, putting the lives of pastoralists in danger and
negatively affecting the economy. But fishing has now become the locals’
silver bullet as they are guaranteed of nutritious food for their
families and income from the sale of the stocks.
FairFishing is now hopeful that its intervention will see the turnover of those in the business rise to $10 million by 2021.
