British Minister in Namibia for talks on cutting illegal fishing

09 July 2008

Press Release

Britain’s Trade and Development Minister, Gareth Thomas, will visit Windhoek today to reaffirm the UK’s commitment to helping Namibia and other African countries tackle illegal fishing and support legitimate trade. This will help secure fisheries as a vital contributor to African jobs, food supplies and economic success.

Mr Thomas will visit the Hangana Seafood company, the first Namibian firm to receive the British Retail Consortium’s trading certificate. This is recognised by most UK retailers, including major supermarkets, as a mark of best practice on how to operate a food processing business. The certification will allow the company to export to the UK for the first time. Currently 90% of the company’s products are exported to mainland Europe.

Gareth Thomas said:

“In Africa today Namibia is leading the way in tackling the menace of illegal fishing and reaping the benefits. Thanks to some tough measures the legal fishing industry now accounts for 10% of Namibia’s national income compared to less than 4% at the time of independence. That has meant more jobs for more people.

“But every year $1 billion is snatched away from honest African fishermen by criminals. That is why the UK has already provided more than $1 million for plans to curtail pirate activities in southern Africa centred on the successful work already carried out in Namibia. We stand ready to go even further and the UK will shortly be finalising plans to give several million dollars more to the fight against illegal fishing in Africa.”

Peter Gruttmeyer, Managing Director of Hangana Seafood, said:

“We welcome Gareth Thomas’s visit to Namibia and value the contribution the United Kingdom continues to make to help our government curb illegal fishing. This illegal practice is of great concern to Hangana Seafood and all other fishing operations that operate in our Exclusive Economic Zone. It deprives us of vital fish catches and revenues. As a result our economic viability and our ability to secure jobs in our country are put at risk.”

The UK has been supporting a southern Africa initiative on illegal fishing at a cost of $1.2 million since June 2007. The funding as gone to several initiatives including research to better understand trends in illegal fishing and for Namibia to host an international Ministerial meeting to set out what action was need across Africa to tackle illegal fishing. 

Namibia’s Fishing Facts

• Income from fishing contributes about $530 million to Namibia’s national income (10% of the overall).
  
• Around 14,000 people are employed in Namibia’s fishing industry, half of whom are employed in onshore processing.
  
• Fish and fish products contributed about 30% to Namibia’s total export earnings.
  
• The biggest catches are hake and horse mackerel.
  
• Namibia is now the world’s biggest supplier of hake into the European Union.
  
• Namibia is the only African country to be part of the High Seas Task Force, an international coalition of nations and NGOs launched in 2003 which works to prevent illegal fishing around the world.