By Conrad Mwanawashe
The farmed Nile Tilapia value chain in Zimbabwe remains small, producing 4 775 tonnes a year, 65 percent of which is exported to countries in the region but this is about to change following intervention by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and partners which seek to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of fisheries and aquaculture value chains.
Through the FISH4ACP, an initiative of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) being implemented by FAO and partners with funding from the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the farmed Nile Tilapia value chain is receiving increasing attention including efforts to develop an upgrading strategy for the value chain and initiate plans for the implementation phase in consultation with value chain stakeholders.
The FISH4ACP programme was launched in Zimbabwe in 2020, focusing on the farmed tilapia value chain through a series of engagements with the government and key stakeholders. Following the inception workshop in April 2021, the project kicked off the value chain analysis phase to collect data across the country. A local partner organization, Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT), was engaged to support the data collection effort. The collected data enabled FAO’s Value Chain Analysis Team to carry out the functional analysis and assessments of the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the tilapia value chain to develop the value chain analysis (VCA) report that will be presented at the validation workshop.
The two-day validation workshop, to be held Tuesday & Wednesday in Harare, is a platform to discuss the results of the VCA report and obtain inputs from value chain stakeholders on key issues to be addressed or updated. The workshop objectives include to offer a platform to present the results of the Value Chain Analysis (VCA) report for discussion and input;, to initiate the development of a shared vision and strategic options for value chain upgrading and identify potential first activities (i.e. low hanging fruit) to be launched during the main implementation phase of the project (starting 2022).
Some of the key findings to be tabled at workshop include:
• Net income for all core actors is positive but varies considerably between small (USD122/year) and large fish farmers (USD3.5 million/year).
• RoS and RoI for all actor types all positive but are below the the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe commercial lending rate (38%), making tilapia farming unprofitable if investment capital has to be borrowed from banks.
• Small fish farmers do not provide employment for hired workers as it is a part-time activity.
• There is no minimum wage in Zimbabwe and the average wage for general farm workers can be below the national poverty line (USD4.70/day).
• As the sector remains nascent, tilapia farming provides very little contribution to the national economy (0.02% of GDP).
• The Nominal Protection Co-efficient for domestic tilapia production is 1.31 indicating consumers are paying more for tilapia than if the tilapia were imported.
• VAT of fresh fish is an additional tax burden (14.5%), reducing profitability.
Social sustainability:
• Wage distribution along the VC is unequal, particularly at the production function, where the largest player accounts for the highest contribution to high income.
• Value added distribution is also unequal, with the largest player, LHA being responsible for the highest level of value added.
• Women’s participation and share of income and value added is very low, especially among medium and small-scale fish farmers.
• Poverty is high among workers in firms run by small and medium-scale fish farmers.
• Although fish is available, it is largely unaffordable for many low-income households.
• The Zimbabwe Fish Producers Association (ZFPA) estimates there are 600 small-scale tilapia farmers that produce fish for market but in total this accounts for less than 200 tonnes of fish a year and supplies the local market channel.
• Farmed tilapia is mostly retailed in supermarkets, rather than local butcheries, as it is viewed as a premium product.
• Impact of VC actors on biodiversity and ecosystems is concerning as there are no ecological risk assessments, lack of adequate environmental monitoring and dearth of information on current impacts.
• Lack of adequate monitoring and enforcement of existing statutory instruments and environmental standards.
• Lack of wastewater treatment facilities in most of the farms and lack of measures for dealing with organic and inorganic waste.
• Limited awareness on aquaculture best practices. Poor record keeping and absence of traceability of key environmental aspects.
• Risk of water unavailability due to drought.
