Women fish processors in Côte d’Ivoire in Western Africa face a bleak future, with fewer fish and declining incomes

Gorez, Beatrice

Aquatic Commons

40
SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75
WOMEN
Ivory Coast
This article is by Beatrice Gorez 
(cffa.cape@gmail.com), Co-ordinator of 
Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements 
(CFFA), Belgium
In Côte d’Ivoire, the low fishing season lasts eight months of the year. For women fish processors, 
this translates into a relative 
abundance of raw material between 
mid-July and mid-November, when 
they are supplied directly by the fleet 
of local artisanal vessels. During the 
low fishing season, there is almost 
nothing—four months of fish to 
process, too short a time to make a 
decent living. Women have, therefore, 
to turn to imported fish, but this 
market is in the hands of greedy 
intermediaries. Micheline Dion 
Somplehi, President of the Côte 
d’Ivoire National Union of Women 
in Fisheries Societies, provides ideas 
on how this can change, including 
through new regional fish-supply 
channels as well as through the tuna 
fisheries agreement between Côte 
d’Ivoire and the European Union (EU).
Like most of West African 
countries, fish is the main source of 
animal protein for the Côte d’Ivoire 
population. A narrow continental 
shelf limits marine artisanal fisheries 
activities. However, almost three-
quarters of the total production of 
the national maritime fisheries come 
from this artisanal sector. But, as in 
other countries such as Nigeria, Côte 
d’Ivoire fish supply depends largely 
on imports. Over three-quarters of 
the fish consumed in Côte d’Ivoire are 
imported. 
Côte d’Ivoire women fish 
processors source their raw material 
from the artisanal sector but also 
from intermediaries who sell small 
pelagics species caught by industrial 
trawlers in Mauritania, frozen and 
boxed on board. Some years ago, 
60 per cent of the supply of women 
fish processors would come from 
small-scale fisheries and 40 per cent 
consisted of frozen fish imports.
But the situation has changed. 
On the one hand, in the last decade, 
maritime artisanal fisheries landings 
have constantly gone down. Artisanal 
fishermen face many difficulties. 
Fishermen stories about trawlers, 
mostly Korean and Chinese, fishing 
illegally in the coastal zone and 
destroying their nets, are multiplying. 
Unsustainable fishing methods by 
industrial boats, such as pair trawling, 
have added to the problems. But it is 
not just the unsustainable and illegal 
fishing by vessels of foreign origin that 
is a cause for concern. 
As Micheline Dion Somplehi 
explains: “The area reserved for 
artisanal fishing is reduced, and lately, 
it is even more reduced because of 
offshore oil development. The richest 
fishing areas are where the oil wells 
are located, so fishermen have 
difficulties to gain access, and with the 
maritime traffic that this generates, 
many have already lost their fishing 
equipment, carried away by passing 
ships, without compensation”. 
Small pelagics
For women fish processors, one would 
think that imported small pelagic 
species may provide an alternative 
source of raw material. That is not 
the case. The trade of imported small 
pelagics, landed frozen at the port 
of Abidjan, is in the hands of a few 
intermediaries, whose main objective 
is to make the highest profit, not 
A Desperate Search
Women fi sh processors in Côte d’Ivoire in Western Africa 
face a bleak future, with fewer fi sh and declining incomes
...in the last decade, maritime artisanal fi sheries landings 
have constantly gone down. Artisanal fi shermen face 
many diffi culties.
JANUARY 2017
41
to supply women fish processors. 
Moreover, overall, the quantities of 
small pelagics landed in Abidjan have 
decreased and, therefore, inevitably, 
prices have increased. Indeed, in 
recent years, in West Africa, a 
combination of factors has affected 
the supply of small pelagics by 
industrial vessels to markets such 
as Côte d’Ivoire. In Mauritania, for 
conservation reasons and to avoid 
competition with artisanal fishermen, 
the fishing zone for European pelagic 
trawlers was pushed out further 
from the coast in the last fishing 
agreement. And this new zoning was 
applied to Russian vessels as well. 
There is also an increasing fishmeal 
industry developing in the region, 
fuelled by attractive world prices for 
fishmeal. In Mauritania, where the 
majority of the small pelagics destined 
for the region’s markets are caught, 
the government gave approval for 
the construction of about 40 fishmeal 
plants. In 2015, 24 of these plants 
were already in operation, swallowing 
vast quantities of the small pelagics 
caught in Mauritanian waters, 
including by artisanal fishermen. 
These factors negatively affect the 
availability of affordable, good-
quality small pelagics for Côte d’Ivoire 
women fish processors.
Micheline Dion believes things 
have to change: “I think we have to 
develop an alternative supply chain 
based on artisanal fisheries. We 
should think about setting up a trade 
route between areas where small 
pelagics are found in abundance, 
and where small-scale fishing can 
develop its capacity to catch them 
and conserve their quality, such as 
in Mauritania, and see the possibility 
to organize transport by container, 
by sea, to our country where the 
demand is. With the support of GIZ 
(German Development Co-operation 
Agency), our Mauritanian fishermen’s 
colleagues have a project to develop 
a small fleet of artisanal seiners to 
develop such a supply chain”.
The future may look brighter, but 
nowadays, with a declining supply 
from artisanal fishing limited to four 
months of the year, and with greater 
difficulties to afford diminishing 
quantities of imported small pelagics, 
women are left with no fish and no 
income.
W O M E N
MICHELINE DION SOMPLEHI / CMATPHA
Faux thon trade in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Today, this faux thon is landed in Abidjan by the 
tuna boats’ crew, and sold without control to local intermediaries, who then sell it to the women
42
SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75
cape-cffa.org/new-blog/women-fi sh-
processors-in-cte-divoire-desperately-
seeking-fi sh
Women Fish Processors in Ivory 
Coast: Desperately Seeking Fish
For more
A source of supply which could 
help the women fish processors 
in their quest for raw material, is 
the ‘faux thon’ landed by European 
vessels in Abidjan under the European 
Union—Côte d’Ivoire fisheries 
partnership agreement. In the Gulf 
of Guinea, Abidjan is the most 
important port for the landing of 
tropical tuna. Three canneries—Scodi, 
Pêche et Froid and Castelli—deal 
mainly with yellowfin, skipjack and 
bigeye tuna. Damaged, undersized 
tuna and by-catches which are not 
used by the canneries constitute the 
faux thon. Today, this faux thon is 
landed in Abidjan by the tuna boats’ 
crew, and sold without control to local 
intermediaries, who then sell it to the 
women. The quantities of this faux 
thon are estimated at between 5,000 
and 8,000 tonnes a year.  In recent 
years, European purse-seiners land 
on average 48 tonnes of faux thon 
per landing. This fish could constitute 
an interesting alternative to small 
pelagics for supplying the Abidjan 
women fish processors when there’s 
nothing else to process.
But things are far from simple. 
At a hearing at the European 
Parliament on the role of women 
in fisheries in May 2016, Micheline 
Dion explained: “At the port of 
Abidjan, women fish processors 
currently buy the faux thon 
from Lebanese and Burkinabe 
intermediaries. They pay around 1,000 
CFA per kilo (2 euros). During the 
processing—drying, smoking—the 
faux thon loses a third of its weight. 
It is necessary therefore to buy 1.5 kg, 
spending 1500 CFA (around 3 euros), 
to get a kilo of processed product. 
The woman must also pay for 
transport and firewood. Ultimately, 
the kilo of processed faux thon is 
sold at 2800 CFA per kilo (4 euros). 
With the price of the raw material, 
a woman works hard to earn almost 
nothing. Worse yet, as often the 
intermediary makes her an advance 
to buy this overpriced raw material, 
she is obliged to continue to work 
at a loss to repay her loan and ends 
ultimately in debt and in greater 
poverty.”
That is why, on behalf of the 
Côte d’Ivoire women fish processors, 
Micheline Dion asked the European 
Parliament to support, under the 
partnership agreement between 
the EU and Côte d’Ivoire, a formalized 
landing of faux thon and its direct 
sale to women through their national 
organization, in order to ensure the 
quality of the fish landed, and fair 
prices by escaping the intermediaries. 
The European Commission—the 
administration that negotiates and 
manages the EU fishing agreements 
—has accepted to put the topic on 
the table at the next EU-Côte d’Ivoire 
fishing agreement committee, to meet 
in December 2016. 
While such proposals are 
being considered, it is vital for 
decisionmakers to appreciate the role 
of Côte d’Ivoire women, not only in 
terms of the local economy and food 
security, but for the whole artisanal 
sector. As in many African countries, 
it is the women who often pre-finance 
fishing trips in the artisanal sector. 
The way in which both artisanal 
fishing is protected, and the trade in 
imported fish is regulated to benefit 
women traders is, therefore, critical. 
Without urgent reforms, women 
fish processors are facing a 
bleak future, with fewer fish and 
declining incomes.                                    
Damaged, undersized tuna and by-catches which are not 
used by the canneries constitute the faux thon.
I V O R Y  C O A S T


Ivory Coast: women, a desperate search

http://aquaticcommons.org/21172/1/010%20A%20Desperate%20Search.pdf

Ivory Coast: women, a desperate search

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