Namibia fishing in rough waters
2004-11-11 11:08
Walvis Bay - About every 10 days, the trawler Hurinis is one of dozens steaming into the west coast port of Walvis Bay to offload 60 tons of freshly netted deep water hake, caught in the rich coastal waters off Namibia.
At the nearby Blue Ocean fish factory - one of numerous dotting the quayside along this Atlantic harbour town - the popular eating fish gets gutted, washed, packed and frozen before being shipped to Europe, landing in the best restaurants and on family tables in Spain, France and the Netherlands.
Yet despite good catches and filling quotas, Namibia's fishing sector - one of the biggest job providers and the second largest industry after mining - is headed into troubled waters.
The industry, which gives jobs to some 7nbsp;000 people in a country with an unemployment rate of over 30%, has been hard hit by a drop in fish prices on the European market and the strengthening of the Namibian dollar.
"We are going through bad times at the moment," Jose Ruiz, managing director at Overberg Fishing, one of the largest export companies based out of Walvis Bay, told AFP.
"We are suffering a decrease of at least 40% in fish prices fetched this year on the European markets," he said.
Prices have dropped from €2.75/kg for small hake fillets, the main export fish to Europe, last year to a mere €1.50, while off-cuts of the same fish in recent times dropped from two to one euro.
At the same time, the Namibian dollar, which is pegged to its bigger brother, the South African rand, saw a radical strengthening, also hurting exports.
"Bad prices and the strong exchange rate is really hurting the industry," said Paulos Hango, president of the Trade Union of the Congress of Namibia, who represents the majority of workers within the fishing sector.
"Jobs are being lost and we are in tough negotiations with some of the companies to try and force them not to close down operations, which means that our members could be put on leave for months while their salaries are being slashed," he told AFP.
Unemployment high on election agenda
Unemployment will be foremost on the minds of voters in Walvis Bay when they join Namibians across this vast southern African country to cast ballots in elections on Monday and Tuesday for a new president to succeed veteran leader Sam Nujoma and for a new parliament.
Nujoma's governing South West Africa People's Organisation (Swapo) is headed for an easy win with the president's hand-picked successor, lands minister Hifikepunye Pohamba, set to take over as head of state.
Despite current hard times, the Namibian fishing sector has made a remarkable comeback since the arid southwestern African country's independence in 1990 from apartheid South African rule, said Klaus Schade, senior economics researcher at the Windhoek-based Namibian economic policy research unit.
"Before independence Namibian fish were almost completely depleted because of misadministration by the (apartheid) South African government," said Schade.