Shortages boost seafood exports

Thanks to a drop in global supply, South African seafood producers are seeing an increase in demand from Far East countries, despite the considerable distances. That’s according to Bernd Julicher, managing director of perishables cargo transport company SkyServices, which handles fresh tuna on ice from the Western Cape destined for the fish auctions in Japan. He told FTW that supplying fresh fish into Japan was logistically quite complex due to limited capacity. “We use airfreight due to the nature of the product (fresh on ice) and the high value of the goods and there is unfortunately limited capacity on the route,” said Julicher. Meanwhile, in order to meet increasing global demand, including in Asia, South Africa is growing its aquaculture produce. Professor Mohammad Karaan, Dean of the Stellenbosch University Faculty of AgriSciences, said that South Africa was the second largest exporter of aquaculture food in the southern African region. He noted that the worldwide average consumption of seafood was 19 kilograms per person per year. Belemane Semoli, director: Aquaculture Research and Development in the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Daff ) said the country’s local aquaculture industry had seen an annual growth of 11% in recent years, compared to the 9% growth worldwide. CAPTION Fresh tuna from South Africa is in high demand at the Japanese fish auctions.