Ghana's hook-and-line tuna boats all idle as industry body warns of rising costs

Pinned summary · as of 07:13

Not one of Ghana's hook-and-line tuna vessels is currently at sea, according to Richster Amarh Amarfio, a senior official of the National Fisheries Association of Ghana (NAFAG). He told reporters that heavy operating costs and weak state support are pushing the tuna industry towards collapse.

What we know

• Amarfio, who sits in the Tuna Association and holds a senior post at NAFAG, warned that Ghana's tuna industry is under growing financial and operational strain.
• He said the hook-and-line, or pole-line, section of the fleet has stopped working altogether. "We don’t have a single pole-line vessel in Ghana today," Amarfio said.
• According to Amarfio, tuna boats get no fuel support and pay the going market price, and one vessel can burn about 270,000 litres of fuel.
• Amarfio said the industry leans on Korean crew, many of whom are getting older, and that Ghana needs to build up its own trained captains and crew.
• Amarfio also pointed to the expense of port charges, dry-docking and security cover for work in international waters.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  MyJoyOnline reported that Ghana's quota under the Atlantic tuna conservation commission (ICCAT) stands at 37 vessels, with 17 purse seiners still working and 20 hook-and-line boats idle; Citi Newsroom did not give this breakdown.
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  MyJoyOnline put the current pump price paid by the vessels at roughly GH₵18 a litre, which it said means millions of cedis in diesel for one trip. This price has not been confirmed by other reports.
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  MyJoyOnline reported that licence fees have risen from US$35 to US$135 per gross registered tonne, so a 1,000-tonne vessel now pays US$135,000 against US$35,000 before. No other report has confirmed this.
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  MyJoyOnline reported that restrictions on using light to attract fish have made live anchovy bait harder to find, with some boats searching for up to two weeks, that vessels carry armed naval personnel at their owners' cost, and that waits for dry-dock work at Abidjan can last up to two years. None of this was confirmed by a second report.
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  MyJoyOnline also reported that tuna prices have climbed from about US$3,000 to US$4,000 a tonne in 2016 to roughly US$24,000 now, a claim not backed by other reports.
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  Citi Newsroom reported Amarfio as saying the sector brings in over US$200 million of foreign currency yearly, pays taxes on stocks, spare parts and equipment, and needs its own development authority, extra spending on research, products like fish oil and fish meal, and better maritime training. These claims come from a single report.

Why it matters for Ghana

Local canneries such as Pioneer Food Cannery and Cosmo Foods rely on fish landed by Ghana's tuna fleet, so an idle section of that fleet affects their supply and the jobs tied to it around Tema. Crew, vessel owners and port workers all depend on the sector. The warning that Ghana needs more home-trained captains and engineers also bears on future opportunities for young Ghanaians in the industry.