Rough seas ahead for fishing industry

Battered by two years of a strong Namibian dollar, the country's fishing sector - a key foreign exchange earner - is now in trouble, with retrenchments and factory closures on the horizon. After mining, fishing is the largest industry in Namibia, bringing in just over US $52 million in export earnings each year and contributing around 8 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP). Approximately 600,000 mt of fish are landed annually, of which 90 percent is exported to Europe, the US and Asia. "Namibian fish are internationally traded in euros and US dollars. The strong rand [to which the Namibian dollar is tied] results in lower earnings for our fish companies, while operating costs increase," Namibia's fisheries minister, Dr Abraham Iyambo, explained to IRIN. "Higher prices for crude oil worldwide obviously means soaring fuel prices for the Namibian fleet of vessels, and a lot also use fuel to run the machinery freezing catches onboard," Iyambo pointed out. "The sector has really suffered." The government has carefully nurtured the fishing industry since independence in 1990, reversing the decline in stocks caused by over-fishing by then apartheid South Africa. The sector employs about 14,000 people and runs a fleet of some 300 vessels. But at the of 2004, two companies announced retrenchments affecting over 200 workers, which led to illegal strikes and a lockout of the protesters. The largest of the two, Blue Ocean, a subsidiary of the South African-based Oceana Group, closed its fish processing factory at the Namibian port of Walvis Bay in December 2004, and is set to retrench 133 labourers on 31 January. "We are presently engaged in sensitive discussions with other operators in the industry, with a view to finding a sustainable business model [for continuing]," Blue Ocean's managing director, Simon Cummings, told IRIN. "These discussions are subject to the final decision taken by all our shareholders and [fishing] quota holders, and the guidance of the minister of fisheries." High-level negotiations will take place on Monday in a final effort to save the factory workers' jobs. Almost a hundred more employees are still out at sea catching the company's allocated hake quota. Last week Oceana advised its shareholders that earnings per share for the six months ending 31 March 2005 would be between 40 and 60 percent lower than for the same period last year. "The expectation of reduced earnings is mainly as a result of the continued strength of the rand, which affects the profitability of Oceana's export businesses, a lower contribution from the fish meal business and restructuring of the Namibian hake operations," the company said in a statement. Small groups of labourers facing retrenchment come to the Blue Ocean gates daily, in the hope of good news about their fate. "I have four school-going children and other relatives to look after," Paulus Shikongo told IRIN. "They all depend on my salary - how can we survive if I get retrenched?" "I am a casual worker there for over a year now," his colleague, John Ipinge, said. "My union leaders told me I should have been made a temporary worker after six months already. I fear I might not get any retrenchment payment at all." An apparent lack of communication between the fishing companies' management and their workforce has not helped matters, noted Daniel Imbili, president of the Namibia Fishing Industries Union. "If people at management level would be more open to the labourers down at the bottom ranks about problems and challenges, there would be a better understanding," he said. "We want a forum created, with the industry bosses, workers, unions and government represented there, and meeting regularly to discuss relevant issues of the fishing sector, especially the problems we are currently facing," stressed Imbili. The Namibian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) has also urged dialogue. "Collective decisions are important, and the NCCI has drawn up proposals on how the fisheries industry can be supported," said Tarah Shaanika, CEO of the NCCI. "We are already consulting with the government on this." Independent economic analyst Rainer Ritter called for strategic changes in the fishing sector. "Individual firms of a certain size cannot remain globally competitive in the long run. They and all stakeholders need to be interconnected with a common vision," Ritter told IRIN. "This requires a close interplay between companies, business organisations, suppliers, the government and port authorities." Namibia is a significant player in the international fishing industry, and the government has adopted protective laws, including tight quotas and a 200-mile exclusive economic zone, to preserve its valuable stocks of hake, horse mackerel, pilchard, oysters and mussels. A 'Namibianisation' programme was also introduced to increase the ratio of Namibian citizens employed by the sector, and joint ventures between established fishing companies and mainly small, black empowerment newcomers were encouraged.