Seminar: The potential for (and economic limits facing) the use of South African anchovy for human consumption

Date:                   08/09/2013 - 12/09/2013

Location:            Big Sky, Montana (USA)

Speaker:             Tony Leiman

Event Details:     Seminar

The potential for (and economic limits facing)

the use of South African anchovy for human consumption

Monday, 3 June

Venue: Oceanography Seminar Room, UCT

Time: 13h00

Abstract

Anchovy provide one of the most abundant marine resources in South Africa. At present the entire catch is utilised for fishmeal which generates approximately $1700 per ton in foreign earnings. The paper asks whether the diversion of a portion of this resource to human consumption would impose significant costs on the industry, and whether it would offer other social benefits in terms of poverty relief and employment.

Several such initiatives have been undertaken by local pelagic fishing companies. Products included cured anchovy, canned anchovy fillets with capers, anchovy paste and dried anchovies. These were sold on the local and export market. A decrease in the average size of the anchovies from the 1980’s, the labour intensity of anchovy preparation and quality problems blamed on high lipid content, oxidation and rancidity curtailed interest in these activities. The demand for anchovy products appears split between high priced, low volume products such as cured anchovy fillets, and products intended to deliver cheap protein to the local poor. Regarding the former, imports of anchovy products are currently approx R7m per annum. Suitably processed locally caught anchovy could almost certainly displace many of these imported products. The viability of anchovy as a cheap protein is less clear-cut. Research on the size frequency and the geographical range of the anchovy resource indicates that larger fish could be targeted in areas off the Agulhas bank and south coast on a seasonal basis. It would require the targeting these shoals of larger anchovy, and the use of onboard facilities to preserve these fish in chilled or refrigerated seawater. It is suggested that the availability of a source of larger fish would open up opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SME’s) to utilise South African anchovies.