After previously making its intentions to “vigorously” pursue the export market clear, the country’s largest farmed-fish producer, East London-based Oceanwise, is awaiting the grant of cultured fishery product health certificates, which will allow it to make its first exports to lucrative markets such as the European Union and China.

Through the Marine Finfish Farmers Association of South Africa, Oceanwise was currently engaged in talks with the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) to secure the requisite product health certificates.

“The process to obtain the certificate involves the registration and processing of an aquaculture fish health-monitoring programme, which has recently been completed and approved by the DAFF,” commented Oceanwise marketing director Liam Ryan.

As part of the NRCS monitoring programme, the company would undergo continual inspection, which required regular sampling of farmed fish products, as well as testing of water quality and other farming parameters, for a lengthy period.

The fishery’s dusky kob was already being sold locally through regional distributors, which supplied product to the food service and restaurant industry, as well as over 150 Woolworth’s stores across the country.

In April last year, Oceanwise was one of six Eastern Cape companies placed by development financier the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) on a permanent trade fair in Ningbo, China, in an attempt to capture a share of the lucrative Chinese consumer market.

In the last financial year, the ECDC also extended a R10-million loan facility to Oceanwise to assist with its operations.

“This is an immense opportunity for the company, as China is by far the largest aquaculture [market] in the world. We offer a premium product that we are confident will find a niche in the massive Chinese market and the rest of the world,” said Ryan.

The ECDC said in a statement that establishing a passage to the export market would “go a long way” towards the Eastern Cape challenging the Western Cape’s dominant position in the infant industrial sector in South Africa.

The Eastern Cape was currently the second-largest aquaculture producer in the country.

“According to the DAFF, in 2011, the Western Cape recorded aquaculture production of 1 624 t, and was the main contributor to South Africa’s total marine aquaculture production, followed by the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape, which recorded production of 252 t and 6 t respectively,” it noted.

Oceanwise’s operation was the only farm of its size in South Africa, with over 220 tanks and 650 000 fish in production in its recirculating tanks, which contained an estimated 4.5-million litres of seawater.

According to the ECDC, aquaculture was the fastest growing food production sector in the world, growing at a yearly rate of between 8% and 10% for the last 20 years and, currently, contributed about 50% of global fisheries’ products.

Despite this position, South Africa’s contribution to the global aquaculture production was 0.01%.

“Owing to the decline of capture fish stocks and the increase in demand for fishery products; the potential for aquaculture remains high. The sector has the potential to contribute to food security, job creation and rural development. The aquaculture sector was, therefore, identified as a government priority and was included in the government’s Industrial Policy Action Plan, the New Growth Path and the Zero Hunger Campaign,” the ECDC maintained.

As a result of the sector’s export potential, the ECDC had also spearheaded the development of one of the largest aquaculture projects in South Africa in recent years.

The R250-million Blue Karoo Trust (BKT) project, located in Graaff Reinet, about 250 km from Port Elizabeth, would, upon completion, comprise a 6 ha core farm, 39 outgrower farms and three hatcheries, producing 13 728 t of farmed fish a year.

There would also be a factory for processing, targeting the bulk catering market.

“Projects such as BKT are critical if you take into account that South Africa is expected to become a net importer of fish in just a few years. The country is already a high importer of fish products from Scandanavian countries, while Algeria already supplies a lot of frozen fish to South Africa.

“South Africa imports more fish than it exports and this could negatively affect South Africa’s balance of payment,” cautioned ECDC risk capital specialist Phakamisa George.