Fishing controversy

Namibia's Fisheries ministry has denied reports that its white fish exports to Spain are under threat as a result of high levels of bacteria detected in a consignment headed for Madrid. An official of the Fisheries Ministry told IRIN on Wednesday that the incident was an isolated one. "Namibia enforces one of the highest health standards for its fishery exports," the official said, adding that only one of the three consignments destined for Spain was found to contain high levels of bacteria. "Our European exports through Spain have not been affected by this once-off incident," the official told IRIN. Namibia, said the official, which exports about 150,000 mt of hake to Europe per annum, also exports sizeable quantities of fish to other countries in the continent including Nigeria, South Africa as well as to Japan and Asia. "The fisheries is the third highest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) after diamonds and agriculture, and employs between 4,000 and 7,000 people," the official said. Namibia's fishing industry last year recorded an estimated growth of 18.6 percent due to an increase in total allowable catch quotas and high international demand following the depreciation of the country's dollar, according to the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit. In its 1998/99 economic review, the unit said that the country's exports of processed and semi-processed fish last year constituted 30.3 percent of Namibia's total exports for that year. The unit forecast that should the favourable trend in fish stock recovery and international demand continue, the sector would raise its value-addition by 10 percent or more during 1999. The Namibian fishing rights, said the official, are given to companies for periods of four, seven and ten years based on criteria determined by the available fish stocks in a given year and the size of the fishing zone. "We believe our management policies of the fisheries are sustainable, the only setback we might suffer is when environmental conditions adversely affect the fish stocks as happened in 1995 when the levels went down," said the official.