Mozambique: Mobile phone financial services soar in 2023
Photos: A Verdade
The Minister of the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries Agostinho Mondlane has clarified that there is no Chinese assault on Mozambique’s national waters: “Any vessel that comes to fish must be in the service of a national company that is authorised to operate in Mozambique.”
Agostinho Mondlane deflated the phobia of China, @ Verdade reports. “Vessels from Portugal, Spain, France, South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, Namibia, etc., fish in our waters,” he said, and revealed that many Mozambican operators “under-report both catches as well as exports”.
Faced with the news that six trawlers returned to China a few weeks ago with 359 tonnes of crustaceans and fish and that at least 114 Chinese vessels have been licensed for industrial fishing in Mozambique, the Minister of the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries explained that: “Any vessel that comes to fish must be in the service of a national company that is authorised to operate in Mozambique, with a license for a certain fishery. Exception applies to oceanic tuna: it is possible to license companies that have a home port abroad because tuna is a migratory species.”
“There has been talk of 114 foreign vessels coming in. We are also surprised by this information and do not know where it comes from. The truth is that we have been licensing companies’ vessels based in Mozambique – it is mandatory that those who want to fish in our waters become companies here in Mozambique, according to our law. Then they request to fish one or several species and we check if there is room or not, considering the availability of vessels to fish by species,” Minister Mondlane explained.
Speaking at a press conference last Friday (07-12) the minister said that, for example, “I have not authorised any new shrimp fishing since 2015. I have made an order that as a matter of sustainability, no new vessels should access the Sofala banks ”
“Illegal fishing starts with ourselves in Mozambique”
According to the minister, all 492 industrial and semi-industrial vessels operating in Mozambican waters “are licensed under the fisheries laws and respective regulations and are subject to monitoring which, in the case of sea, [is performed by] the satellite system”.
Because Mozambican law, like that of other countries, allows national companies to charter vessels anywhere, Minister Mondlane revealed that there are “vessels from several countries here in Mozambique, and not only from Chin: we have vessels from Portugal, Spain, France, South Africa, Mauritius, The Seychelles, Namibia, etc., which fish in our waters”.
Agostinho Mondlane said he had no doubt that “Illegal fishing starts in Mozambique with ourselves and then includes those that come from overseas”. He said that information circulating in the press and on social networks was commissioned by the national fishing industry, “which was fined for evasion over the quantities of shrimp caught and we acted”.
“Data show stagnation of semi-industrial and industrial fishing” in Mozambique
“All vessels are subject to inspections. More than 700 have been carried out during the current year, resulting in 101 fines totalling 80 million meticais. They are various offences: in some cases, of under-reporting of catches; in other cases, fishing outside the authorised areas for the technical means they have,” Mondlane said.
The minister said that even industrial fishermen who have been working for a long time are “under-reporting on both catches and exports. Not only the values of the exported volumes and the values in the markets of destination (…) there are situations of exporters who do not repatriate the revenues”. The fisheries sector was therefore working with the Tax Authority to encourage all exporters to use the Single Electronic Window [JUE].
“In the new regulation, anyone who withholds data or makes a false declaration runs the risk of losing the fishing license, because we cannot develop a fishing industry that plunders the country. We want a fishing industry for development,” the minister said at the first press conference he has conducted since he took up the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries portfolio.
In fact, “the data show a stagnation of semi-industrial and industrial fishing”, Minister Mondlane said, explaining that the sector, which expects to catch 394,000 tons of assorted species, has grown since 2015 at an annual average rate of 9 percent, while the semi- industrial and industrial sector accounts for only 2.2 percent.
The @Verdade knows that the lobster catch, which was 237 tonnes in 2017, fell this year to 130 tonnes and is expected to fall again, to 150 tonnes in 2019. Prawn is expected to reach 2,084 tonnes next year after the this year’s 1,800 . Shrimp, which two years ago was reported at 4,277 tonnes, fell to 3,000 in 2018 and will be 3,380 by 2019. National tuna is expected to register 1,100 tonnes in 2019, similar to the figure two years ago, while foreign tuna is expected to fall to only 500 tonnes against the 3,200 tonnes of this year and the 3,478 tonnes of 2017. Most significant are the increases in the catch of diverse fish, with 2018’s 3,784 tonnes expected to grow to 5,768 by 2019. Crab, which reached 150 tonnes this year, could rise to as much as 270 tonnes next year.
Minister Mondlane also revealed that, in order to preserve wild fish species, a new regulation would soon come into force that “will oblige those who fish for native species to also develop the potential of aquaculture both at sea and in inland waters”. Currently, aquaculture contributes only one percent of Mozambique’s fish catch.
By Adérito Caldeira
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