Egypt Aquaculture Value Chain Component Situation Report

2012Malcolm Dickson

Livestock and Fish Value Chain Component Planning Meeting, Nairobi Kenya, 6-7

December 2012

Livestock & Fish value chains meeting

6th December 2012, Nairobi

Egyptian aquaculture

• 985,000 tonnes aquaculture production in 2010 (340,100 tonnes in 2000)*

• Mostly private sector fresh or brackish water ponds, growing tilapia (60% of aquaculture production) & mullet (12%), also African catfish (1.1%) and carp (20%?) mainly in public sector facilities

• Also tilapia cage culture but this has been actively discouraged

• Some private-sector seabass & sea bream in cages & tanks

*GAFRD statistics

A significant industry

• Nearly all for domestic market• Aquaculture represents 70.3% of Egyptian fish production &

59% of total fish consumption• Fish (esp. small tilapia) is the lowest cost animal protein

source (LE 10-12/kg cf. chicken LE 20/kg, beef LE 60/kg)

• Egyptian aquaculture value chain employs at least 100,000 people (full-time equivalent), around 50% youth

• Two-thirds of African aquaculture production is from Egypt

• Egypt is the second largest global tilapia aquaculture producer and largest global mullet aquaculture producer

Production centers

Kafr el Sheikh

Sharkia

Behera

Fayoum

Egyptian aquaculture

Egyptian aquaculture value chain assessment

• Study carried out by WorldFish Center in Sept 2011

• A ‘team’ approach using a range of enumerators and industry contacts

• VCA used to provide facts & figures for the project proposal submitted SDC in November 2011

• Improving Employment and Incomes through Development of Egypt’s Aquaculture Sector (IEIDEAS) project

• Paper on VCA published in Aquaculture, also WorldFish Project Report 2011-54

The IEIDEAS Project

• Project approved December 2011, field activities started Feb/March 2012

– Dissemination of ‘Abbassa strain’ genetically improved tilapia to the Egyptian aquaculture industry

– Development of Best Management Practice guidelines & BMP training delivered through Producer Organisations

– Support for women retailers (managed by CARE)

– Expansion of aquaculture in Upper Egypt (managed by CARE)

– Improving the policy environment for aquaculture

The IEIDEAS project

• Disseminate improved tilapia seed

• Develop & implement best management practices (feed, seed, water use)

• Develop/strengthen producer organisations

• Deliver training through POs

• Disseminate improved tilapia seed

• Develop & implement best management practices (feed, seed, water use)

• Develop/strengthen producer organisations

• Deliver training through POs

• Develop/strengthen women retailer organisations

• Develop new added value products

• Develop new markets for aquaculture products

• Develop/strengthen women retailer organisations

• Develop new added value products

• Develop new markets for aquaculture products

• Improve policy environment for aquaculture• Expand aquaculture in Upper Egypt (El Mineya)

• Improve policy environment for aquaculture• Expand aquaculture in Upper Egypt (El Mineya)

Impact

•Increased employment•Increased or sustained profitability•Increased fish production•Sustained access to affordable fish•Improved human nutrition

Impact

•Increased employment•Increased or sustained profitability•Increased fish production•Sustained access to affordable fish•Improved human nutrition

Outcome 1 – Improved profitability

• Improved Abbassa strain tilapia (30% better growth) released to fish farmers

• Seed value chain study completed• Best Management Practice survey• Best Management Practice training of trainers• BMP training going on now• Representation of the industry at policy level

Outcome 2 – Women fish retailers

• Implemented by CARE• Study completed• Groups identified and 2 formed so far• Groups receive business planning training, write

business plans including interventions• First group wanted ice-boxes, transport (motorised

tricycle, deep freezer• Plus official recognition within marketplace (space,

agreed fee rates, status)

Outcome 3 – Upper Egypt aquaculture

• Managed by CARE supported technically by WorldFish• Initial study completed• Technical support and training for existing farms• Trying to identify new opportunities – desert farms

pumping water from wells, ox-bow lakes near the Nile• Now looking at pro-poor aquaculture – homestead

catfish tanks managed by women

Outcome 4 – Policy & Institutions

• Egyptian aquaculture constrained by laws over location of farms and use of water

• Aim to change policy but it will take time – especially at the present time

• Need to take into account priorities of other users, regulatory authorities

• No representative organisation for Aquaculture sector at present

• Market opportunities constrained by attitudes to farmed fish – only for poor people?

M4P, GTA and Results Measurement

• Need to make sure the project is addressing the needs of poor people & women

• Also logframe needed to be revised – loose indicators, unachievable targets, new objectives

• Making Markets Work For the Poor co-developed by SDC – emphasis on addressing poverty and sustainability

• Gender Transformative Approach – beyond ‘gender aware’

• Results Measurement – uses Results Chains to tease out the causal links leading to common ‘poverty level’ goals of interest to donors – employment, income, scale

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