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Seychelles, one of the world’s smallest countries, is composed of two main island groups: the Mahé group and coralline islands. (Map: britannica.com)
Seafood exports grow
SEYCHELLES
Tuesday, October 23, 2018, 03:00 (GMT + 9)
Fresh and frozen fish exports in the Seychelles increased in the first half of the year, which helped boost total exports and contributed positively to the national economy.
Canned tuna remains the country's biggest export. During the first six months of the year, the value of exports of canned tuna increased by 5.6 per cent, to USD 130.07 million, compared to USD 123.12 million in the same period in 2017.
In addition, according to the figures of the Seychelles' National Bureau of Statistics, the sales abroad of fresh and frozen fish increased 116 per cent in this period, to 5,025 tonnes, and generated USD 7,600, compared to USD 3,500 in the first six months last year.
In this regard, the principal secretary of the Department of Fisheries, Jude Talma, said the 52 per cent of the caught fish is being exported as a result of bycatch landing in the Seychelles, Seychelles News Agency reported.
Photo: Left Secretary of the Department of Fisheries, Jude Talma (Source: Stock File)
"Most of these fish caught by purse seiners are not necessarily processed here but are transhipped to other countries. However, in the long run, the government is planning to process more of these fish locally to gain more benefit by adding more value to it," he added.
Ilia Kazakov, sales manager of a local company Oceana Fisheries, said: "For our company, in particular, we reduced the volume of exported fresh fish, but increased export volume of frozen fish. In total, we doubled the amount of fish exported last year."
Kazakov said some of the exports have a tendency to decrease, while others can grow tremendously and claimed that the Seychelles Fishing Authority and Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture have to look at how to maintain healthy and sustainable fishing for species like tuna and emperor red snapper and encourage fishing of other fish as well.
Given that sea cucumber exports dropped following a decrease in the number of catches, the Seychelles Fishing Authority has decided to reduce the length of the season by one month. As of this year, the fishing season of the resource will last from October to May instead of October to June
Since the year started, the authority found the need to introduce a quota system for each of the three species of sea cucumber that are targeted -- the flower teat fish, white teat fish and prickly redfish.
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