Massawa

By: Berhane Woldu

If there is ever a region that epitomizes the economic future of Eritrea, it’s the Northern Red Sea Region. A frenzied sprawl of 1 million people it’s the second largest region in Eritrea.

It’s also a place where you will find six ethnic groups live together in harmony. At one recent colloquium conducted by the Governor of the region it was explained the various economic developments and the exploitation of natural resources such as agriculture, fisheries, tourism and mining.

All this speaks to Eritrea’s new growth path, one that is defined by Eritrean’s and Eritrean demand, rather than outsiders. The epicenter of the new growth is the country’s vast coastal expanse and the vast plains that are conducive for agricultural investment. While economist inside and outside Eritrea are bearish on Gold export from Bisha, Gash- Barcka region, it will be extremely bullish on the prospects of the Northern Red Sea Region which enjoys higher growth rates, favorable government policy, and the possibility of a huge consumption binge. Northern Red Sea Region also happens to be where the free zone ports of different size, 220 coral reefs and over 1000 fish species and virgin natural resources; oil, natural gas, iron ore, and lime stone are located. Mineral resources embedded on various areas of the region such as copper, gold, gypsum, granite, marble and ceramics. But while foreign firms are salivating over the potential gains to be had from all this, it’s the Eritreans themselves, rather than outsiders, who will tap them.

State-owned industries are an important factor in the nation’s economy. The basis for public intervention in the economy is the system of state holdings regulated by the ministry bearing that name, established in 1991; it representing a necessary tool by means of which the state can exercise control over, and act directly in, the country’s development, causing it to reach those results dictated by state economic policy. The state’s political authorities thus assign the economic policy objectives deemed necessary, and the agencies autonomously see to their desired outcomes. These agencies are: Ministry of Fisheries, Massawa Port Authority, Ministry of Education and many more who jointly work with the regional administration to implement the set goals and achieve the desired outcome in the domains of agriculture, fisheries, tourism, trade and industry, social services and infrastructural developments.

Development policies have now been put in place. The construction of Massawa airport, the Free Economic Zone, the expanding and reconstructing of ports, construction of oil jetty and the construction of cement fabric that is expected to produce 10,000K per day are some of the developments that have been achieved in the region.

Last year the government announced new Massawa infrastructure projects totaling 1 billion nakfa, even more than the 2009 figure. But unlike in the 2002 to 2008,Eritrea has the financial resources, experience, expertise and confidence it gained to build the country from zero economy to where it is today on its own.

What’s more, the fact that the region is rich in natural resources and borders politically troublesome areas like Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen means that the regional government is more likely to want to exert greater control in commercial affairs.

The central government has given the coast more investment in the domains of agriculture, fisheries, tourism, trade and industry. The development of theNorthern Red Sea region is a study in state-led capitalism. Over the next 5 years, there’s going to be a huge shift in the nature of private investment in Eritrea; much more of the money is going to come from Eritrea rather than foreigners. In the wake of the 2009 world financial turmoil and still mired in fiscal retrenchment and tighter credit conditions, capital is becoming scarce and more expensive; hence, mobilization of internal capital as an alternative source of capital is essential to Eritrea. Eritrea’s current emphasis on balancing its economy towards domestic demand also means less of a golden handshake for foreign companies.

The sectors such as telecommunication, agriculture, and electricity are off limits to foreigners. Now, with the focus on agriculture, over 90,000 hectares have been utilized and a number of agricultural infrastructure programs have been implemented which increase domestic consumption. Local firms will have leg up in the growing region where no multinationals have yet to venture. Foreign firms’ relative lack of business experience in a region where culture, equality, mutual interest, ideology, trust, and relationship with the local bureaucracy play an even larger role is a major disadvantage. Even if all things were equal, basic geography will always favor costal area development. Transport costs are much higher for foreign firms than they are for domestic firms, and the proximity and cultural similarity of countries like Yemen and Arabia favor regional partnership rather than ventures run by Western multinationals.

In a highly stressed global economy, it’s wise to look internally and focus on Northern Red Sea Region long-term competitive advantages.

erifish

Roxanna Samii, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) -I first visited Eritrea in 2008 and it was love at first sight. In December 2009 when I landed in Asmara airport, I felt like I was back home. I spent my first couple of days visiting the irrigation schemes in zoba Debub and then went east to zoba Northern Red Sea where I visited Massawa, the capital city of Northern Red Sea Zoba which is the centre of Eritrea’s fishing industry.

Massawa is one of the hottest places on earth, with temperatures soaring well above 40C (104F) and 80% or more humidity for much of the year. Yet, like rest of this beautiful country, it has its charm.

Eritrea is a relatively rich country in terms of natural resources. It has gold, potash, zinc, copper and salt. What is perhaps less known is the fact that Eritrea also has significant fisheries resources and that 20% of the coastal population’s livelihoods depends on fisheries. However, unlike the gold or copper, fisheries resources, if properly managed, can continuously provide food, employment and income to the coastal communities.

Eritrea’s 1,200km coastline is highly favourable for artisanal fishing offering rich and varied fish stocks and sheltered fishing grounds. Unlike artisanal fishers in other parts of the world, Eritrean fishers have not overexploited their resources and could potentially increase their catch from the few thousand tons per year to at least 40,000 if not 80,000 tons per year.

Their fish stocks include lizard fish, threadfin breams, and catfish (soft bottom demersal); snappers, emperors, grunts, job fish and groupers (hard bottom demersal and reef fishes); sardines and anchovies (small pelagic); tunas, mackerels and sharks (large pelagic); shrimp, crabs, lobsters (crustaceans); and squids and octopus and cuttlefish (cephalopods).

“Eritrea’s fisheries sector has the potential to contribute substantively to our national food security and can play an important role in reducing poverty in coastal areas”, says Andom Ghebretensae, Director-General Regulatory Services. “Currently we have 3,000 licensed artisanal fishers. Eritrea’s coast not only is rich in fisheries resources but also has great potential for tourism.”

The Government of Eritrea has long recognized this potential and in collaboration with a number of donors such as the African Development Bank and the European Union has built EU standard landing and processing sites. These sites are fully equipped with processing and storage facilities, where trained personnel weigh, process and grade the catch.

Eritrea’s fish exports may have been low in recent years (approximately 234mt in 2008), however, thanks to the upgrading of landing and processing facilities, today Eritrea is eligible to export fish products to European Union countries.

Eritrean artisanal fishers aspire to become entrepreneurs

Eritrean artisanal fishers use two types of fishing boats – houris or sambuks. Houris constitute 80% of the fishing fleet. These are wooden boats and measure anywhere between 8-13 metres. It has an outboard engine and can take up to five people on board.

Sambuk, 16 metre wooden boat with an inboard engine, constitute approximately 9% of the fishing fleet. Sambuks can take up to nine people on board.

The remaining 11% is made up of fibreglass reinforced plastic boats imported from Saudi Arabia or Yemen, although some are also being built in Eritrea.

“I have a traditional wooden boat called a houri which I bought thanks to a 5 year loan”, says Ahmed Hamid, an artisanal fisher. “There are three of us and with our boat we can go between 8-10 kilometres from the shore and we can always count on an average catch of 800 kilos”.

“During the fishing season – which is approximately seven months – we make about 2-3 fishing expeditions per month. We use small nets and usually stay out in the sea for an average of 10 days”, explains Hamid

“We buy ice from Massawa Fish Landing centre for 0.80 nakfa per kilo and use it to preserve the fish on board”, says Hamid proudly. “We sell our entire catch to National Fisheries Corporation which then sells it to processors such as Erifish. They buy the snappers for 22 nakfa per kilo and the groupers go for 25 nakfa. And we use 20% of our catch to repay the loan”.

On the landing site, Hamid and his fellow fishers unload their 800 kilo of first class tuna, snappers, emperor and groupers in big blue containers. Their catch is immediately taken next door to the EU certified Erifish processing plant, where a team of 24 people degut, process and packaged the fish for export.

“I have everything I need on my traditional boat – a cellphone, my medical kit and a transistor radio – but I would like to buy fibre glass reinforced boat, so that we can stay a maximum of a month and come back with an average catch of 1.5 tons”, said Hamid with a smile. “And I look forward to the day when I am able to sell part of my catch freely on the market”.

Fisheries sector can help ensure national food security and provide investment opportunities

In Eritrea, meat is the preferred source of protein. Fish consumption is estimated at 0.5-1kg/person/year which is low compared both to the average Africa consumption, estimated at 8kg/person/year.

“We need to encourage our people to eat more fish and to consider fish as an alternative source of protein”, says Seid Mohamed Abrar, Director, Office of the Minister of Marine Resources.

“We have high market value fish and we can fish approximately 80,000 tons per year without any risk of depleting the fish stock”, says Abrar. “By exploiting our fisheries resources, we can contribute to ensuring food security for our coastal population and help the artisanal fishers to improve their livelihoods.”

This is why the Government of Eritrea requested IFAD’s assistance to design a fisheries development project to support artisanal fishers in the Red Sea coastal regions.

“The IFAD-funded Fisheries Development Project under the auspices of the Ministry of Marine Resources will reorganize and strengthen fishers’ cooperatives and support artisanal fishers so that they can increase their incomes and improve their food security”, says Abla Benhammouche, Country Programme Manager for Eritrea. “This project will help Minister of Marine Resources to make the fisheries sector sustainable and at the same time reduce illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.”

The Fisheries Development Project will build the capacity of fishers such as Hamid and equip them with modern fishing techniques and better and secure boats and fishing gears. At the same time, the project will encourage private sector initiatives to add value to the processing and packaging process, also build the capacity of Erifish to better market the catch domestically and expand their export markets.

To support private sector investment, artisanal fishers such as Hamid will be allowed to sell 20% of their catch to private processors and traders, with the prospect of increasing this percentage as private sector further develops.

Last but not least, private sector investment can help transform Eritrea’s Red Sea coast into a flourishing tourist resort, offering spectacular diving opportunities and uncontaminated beaches. “We can become a viable rival to other Red Sea resorts such as Sharm el-Sheikh”, says a proud Abrar.

Legacy of a visionary American biologist: Mangroves for all

During World War II Dr Gordon Sato, a biologist spent some time in a concentration camp called Manzanar in California desert. During his internment he developed his vision of eradicating hunger by enabling African nations to feed themselves. He invested half a million dollar of his own money in the Manzanar Project.

This visionary philanthropic scientist conceived this project as low-tech solution to hunger and poverty and to combat the impact of climate change, when climate change was neither on the international agenda nor on the talk of the town!

The project started during the 30-year war to win independence from Ethiopia. Sato first joined the Eritrean fighters in 1987 and introduced fish farming. He succeeded in growing fish and providing high protein food for the wounded. After the war, he focused on issues related to economic development and applied what he knew best – biological principles – to develop a self-sufficient economy in a country that is prone to drought and famine.

However, soon he saw the potential of mangroves to increase food production all the way up the food chain.

In an interview, Sato said: “I was in an area with mangrove trees, and I noticed the camels eating them. I got the idea that the trees could also supply food for sheep and goats. There was lots of available space for growing mangroves, so it seemed like an obvious solution. Initially, I had to figure out how best to grow them and how to make the mangroves good food. We found that mangroves would be adequate food for livestock, as long as they were supplemented by a small amount of fish meal prepared from fish waste.”

Years later, thanks to the Manzanar project and Sato’s legacy, Eritreans are using fresh leaves and dried mangrove seeds as livestock feed. This project has also taught herders that the seaweed that washes up on shore can be dried, processed and used as animal feed.

Ammanuel Yemane, Manzanar project manager, takes pride to showcase Sato’s teaching. Sato and his team reached the conclusion the mangroves were growing in areas where rainwater was washing into the sea. The rain was providing nitrogen, phosphorous and iron – elements lacking in seawater. The team buried the seeds with a piece of iron and a punctured bag of fertiliser rich in nitrogen and phosphorous and saw the mangroves flourishing.

Today, Yemane and his team work with women, men, herders and fishers of Hirgigo village to teach them how to use the same technique to plant mangroves so that they can effectively address sustainable resource issues such as providing food for livestock, protecting the fish and preventing deforestation. “The village is now learning to manage the mangroves and we can recover the lost mangroves in approximately 6 months”, comments Yemane.

The IFAD-funded Fisheries Development Project will join forces with Yemane and his young group of dedicated and passionate Eritrean to support the rehabilitation of the mangroves and to:

• build capacity of fishers to develop viable and sustainable business plans
• teach fishers how to protect marine natural resources such as the coral reefs
• teach fishers to form cooperatives
• organize exchange visits

A brighter future

Through out their history Eritrean people repeatedly have shown their resilience and resoluteness. It goes without saying that they will be able to unleash the potential of their untapped gold mine – their fisheries sector – in the most sustainable manner and as a result contribute substantively to improve the livelihoods of the coastal population and create a vibrant local private sector.