1. Meeting the need and demand for
Animal Source Foods in the MENA
region: the potential of aquaculture
Stephen J. Hall
1

2. Animal Source Foods
Consumption of even small amounts of
animal source foods contribute substantially
to ensuring dietary adequacy and preventing
under nutrition and nutritional deficiencies.
Neumann et al (2003)
 High quality protein
 Improved absorption of other
nutrients.
 Essential vitamins and minerals
 A key part of a balanced diet
 An expectation (and right)
2

3. Fish supply
3000000
Farmed vs Capture Capture by Country
Fish Production (tonnes)
2500000
2000000 Farmed
Capture
1500000
1000000
500000
0
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
Year Year
Capture fisheries production stagnant, aquaculture
the only option for increasing supply
3

4. MENA Aquaculture Production (2009)
Egypt
Iran
Saudi Arabia
Iraq
Production Value (US$)
4
Sources: FAO FishStat

5. Key Messages
 Aquaculture is a business
 Insights will come from value chain analysis
 Freshwater culture drives fish production.
 A focus on mariculture to meet food security objectives is misplaced.
 High capital costs and risks (shaky business case).
 Export focus offers limited returns to local economies or food supply.
 Few MENA countries have meaningful potential to produce fish at
scale.
 Traditional livestock focus will make more sense in many settings.
 Only Egypt currently produces significant quantities of fish.
 An important contributor of affordable animal source food.
 High potential to contribute further to national and regional food security.
 Meeting this growth potential can also lead to employment growth.
5

6. Fresh and Brackishwater Aquaculture Production (tonnes)
Egypt
Iran
Sudan Iraq
Renewable Water Supply (km3.yr-1)
6
Sources: FAO FishStat;Pacific Institute

7. More Meat Milk and Fish by and for the Poor
7

8. Prioritizing criteria for
investment
 Need
 National food and nutrition security assessments indicate current
situation as ‘low’ or ‘at risk.’
 Potential
 Markets for fish are developed to a scale that offers potential to
support a value chain focus
 Potential for aquaculture to contribute significantly to meeting
national/regional fish demand within 5-7 years
 Enabling environment and potential for partnership
 National and regional policy environment supports the proposed
approach
 International development agency policy environment supports the
proposed approach
 Non-Government development partners identify aquaculture value
chains as a fruitful area for investment
8

9. Egyptian Aquaculture
1994 2009
• 57,000 tonnes • 705,000 tonnes
• 8.5 kg fish person-1 y-1 • 15.4 kg fish person-1 y-1
280
260
240 Tilapia
220
Carp
thousand tonnes
200
180
• 75% of Africa’s 160
Mullet
140
aquaculture 120
Bass&Bream
100
80
• Employs 200,000 60
people 40
20
0
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Years
The cheapest Animal Source Food for Egyptian
consumers is fish 9

10. a) 700 b)
Wild Capture + Imports - Exports With Aquaculture
16
600
Per Capita Fish Supply (kg/person/year)
Volume (Tonnes x 1000)
500
12
400
8
300 Wild Capture
Without Aquaculture
200
Imports 4
100
Aquaculture
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
c) Year d) Year
400 25
Contribution to total dietary protein (%)
10 Tilapia Price Volume (Tonnes x 1000)
20
300
8
Total Animal
Price (LE)/kg
15
6
200
10
4
Tilapia Volume
100 Fish
5
2
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
Year Year
10

11. Strategic Partnerships
 National
 ARC and GAFRD
 universities
 industry
 Regional and Global
 FAO
 NGOs (CARE)
 ARIs
 Industry
11

12. Equitable efficient value chains
Seed Inputs
&
Services
Inputs
&
Services
Feed
Production Production
Transport Transport
& &
Processing Processing
Marketing Marketing
Fish Inputs
&
Services
Production
Transport
&
Processing
Marketing
Intermediate Outcome Ultimate Outcome Impacts
• Sustainable supply of 1 • Average per capita fish
• # Identified VC million tonnes of tilapia consumption for poor
constraints resolved or per annum for domestic consumers in target
lessened. markets by 2018. markets reaches 75% of
• % increase in identified • Fish prices for poor national average.
value chain effectiveness consumers in target • Consumption patterns
metrics. markets remain at or among poor consumers
below 2010 prices. are gender equitable. 12

13. The Aquaculture Value Chain, Egypt
Inputs : Feed, fry, capital, land, Inputs : Transport/vehicles, Inputs : Transport/vehicles,
labour, fertiliser, ice, labour, boxes, ice, labour, buildings,
power/electricity, water, nets, power/electricity, power/electricity, fridges,
pumps, generators, buildings freezers, cookers
transport/vehicles, ice
Fish Farms
• Stock in April and harvest Fish traders/ Retail Sector (and
in Sep–Dec i.e. 8-9 months
wholesalers food service sectors)
• Sell 99% of the fish • Keep fish <1 day
• Keep fish for <1 day
harvested
• Sell 99% of fish purchased • Sell 99% of fish purchased
• Average annual sales • Average annual sales
Sell / • Average sales volumes Sell /
volumes and values : 94 volumes and values of 65
deliver and values per year of deliver
tonnes and LE 890,000 tonnes and LE 940,000
to 1112 tonnes and LE 11.9 to
• All product sold live, or • Domestic sales only
million
fresh (w/wo ice)
• All product sold live, or • Almost all product sold
• 8.3 full-time jobs per 100 live, or fresh (w/wo ice)
fresh (w/wo ice)
tonnes sold but small quantities
• 0.9 full-time jobs per 100
• Av. size 265 g tilapia, 409 g cooked/grilled
tonnes sold
grey mullet, 216 g thin- • 4.6 full-time jobs per 100
lipped mullet and 1481 g tonnes sold
catfish
from: Macfadyen et al. (2011)
13

14. VCA – Key Findings
• No exports – short and simple
VC
• No processing – all fish sold
fresh or live
• Little spoilage
• Employment is around 14
FTEs per 100 tonnes
• Evenly divided between youth
and older workers
• Females mainly in retail
• Producers receive 72% final
from: Macfadyen et al. 2011
consumer price 14

15. VCA – Key Findings
• Production costs = $US 1300 t-1
• Feed accounts for 67% total costs
• Operational costs dominate all VC
segments
Net profits
Producers 22%
Traders 3.9
Retailers 6.8%
• Critical factors affecting producers
include poor fry, poor stocking, poor
feed management
15

16. Investment needed to:
 Modernize the industry by improving technologies and
building capacity.
 “Critical factors affecting producers include poor fry,
poor stocking, poor feed management”
Abbassa strain Commercial strain
Photo credit: Nabil Ahmed Ibrahim & Mohamed Yehia Abou Zaid
No of trainees
112g
Progress, but much more needed
16

17. Investment needed to:
 Develop regional markets for supplying affordable fish
to poor consumers
 Identify where regional demand is not being met
 Identify barriers to meeting supply in these markets and
strategies for overcoming them.
 Identify specific interventions that will make value chains more
efficient and improve availability and affordability of supply. (e.g.
market information systems (ICT’s), producer and retailer
networks)
• Growing need and opportunity
• High potential for employment growth in Egypt
(production, processing and marketing)
17

18. Thank You
18