Harmonised standards on fish and fish products to benefit the SADC region

Midrand - The harmonisation and implementation of standards on fish and fish products, as well as sustainable management of fishery resources will benefit the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.  This will be through enhanced level of trade, safe fish and fish products that meet sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and other regulatory requirements.

Many African countries are endowed with fish resources which generate a range of benefits, including food and nutrition security, improved livelihoods, trade and ecological resilience at both household and national levels. However, challenges are faced by the fish sector in Africa, which include lack of harmonised fish standards as well as lack of accurate statistics.

“Bearing in mind the transboundary nature of fisheries, these challenges can only be addressed effectively through harmonisation of regional and national policies, as well as ensuring that all stakeholders work together in partnership,” declared Dr Hamady Diop, NEPAD Head of the Natural Resources Governance – Food Security and Nutrition Programme.

Dr Diop delivered the keynote address at a three-day Southern African Development Community Cooperation in Standardisation (SADC STAN) Fish and Fish Products sub-committee meeting at the NEPAD Agency’s headquarters in Midrand, South Africa.  Country representatives from various Ministries of Fisheries and National Standards Bodies in SADC convened the meeting on 2-4 November.

The work of the sub-committee is therefore timely in that once the fish standards are harmonised, they will contribute to realising the commitments of the policy framework and help improve accountability and quality in relation to fish.

In his opening statement, Dr Sloans Chimatiro, Programme Manager at WorldFish, brought out the importance of intra-regional fish trade; noting that not all countries produce enough fish of their own to satisfy their national demand. He also brought to the fore the Malabo Declaration of 2014, where African Heads of State and Government made a commitment to triple intra-regional commodity trade (including fish) by 2025.

The Fish Trade programme, a partnership between the NEPAD Agency, WorldFish and African Union Inter-Africa Bureau for Animal Resources, supported by the European Union, focuses on four fish trade corridors in Southern, Central, Western and Eastern Africa. These routes transverse 21 countries. The programme’s research in SADC has revealed massive movements of fish across the borders, but most of the trade is informal and not recorded in national accounts. Assessment of policies has revealed that many countries have developed policies but the problem is lack of implementation. Therefore, the programme is assisting regional economic communities and their member states to develop strategies for implementing existing policies.

The meeting’s aim was therefore to harmonise standards, by developing conformity assessment frameworks that will enable the countries to mutually recognise one others’ quality inspection procedures and food safety standards. These harmonised standards will be overlaid at the One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) in order to facilitate free movement of fish and fishery products and enhance intra-regional trade in the SADC region.  They will also improve availability of fish in countries which do not produce enough of their own.  The meeting was attended by representatives from Angola, Botswana, DRC, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), SADCSTAN, and WorldFish.

 Source: NEPAD