Seychelles Tuna Sector Losing Out To East Africa ff

High operating costs in tuna fisheries are putting Seychelles at a disadvantage against its East African neighbors and distant exporters in Asia, a report by stakeholders says.

The ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam offer more services at a lower cost and shipping vessels are being lured away from Port Victoria for servicing and the mending of nets, they said. Kenya also seems bent on tapping into common tuna stocks in the Somalia basin.

“Both Mombasa and Dar es Salaam are coming up and they could catch up with us unless we improve our methods,” researcher Joel de Lestang told government officials and other representatives of the fisheries sector when presenting the report.

Seychelles is the only country in the region with a tuna canning factory, exports 31,000 tons of tuna and 5,000 tons of other fish to the European Union annually but sells the fish at about $5 per kilogram, much higher than the prices its competitors Thailand and Philippines ask for.

“The quality of our fish is better but our prices are higher due to operating costs,” the stakeholders said.

They blamed this on a number of factors including expensive and inadequate local labor, which forces the country to hire expatriates from Kenya, India, Philippines, Madagascar and Thailand.

“Both Kenya and Tanzania are a challenge. Kenya in particular is rapidly establishing its fisheries sector,” said Gerhardi Tirant, the secretary general of the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce.

Seychelles Minister for Environment and Natural resources Ronny Jumeau has commissioned a study to be presented to the Cabinet.

Port Victoria has been operating only during the day but it recently started to work on a 24-hour basis.

She said that the Seychelles rupee, which is pegged at 5.5 to the US dollar is over-valued and contributes to making services in Seychelles too expensive.

The stakeholders said that whereas fisheries in Seychelles is driven by uncoordinated government efforts, the sector is private sector controlled in neighboring Mauritius and it is doing much better.

Seychelles Minister for Environment and Natural resources Ronny Jumeau said he had identified the constraints before he commissioned the study and would present the report to the Cabinet to resolve the hurdles cited, including poor training of fishermen.

“We are right in the middle of the fishing zone yet only one of our 20 longliners is still operating,” he said.