{"id":22508,"date":"2025-05-20T13:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T13:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?p=22508"},"modified":"2025-05-20T13:34:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T13:34:53","slug":"the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Atlantic Africa sardines fishery seeks answers in Nice \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A June 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, could change depleting sardines fisheries of Atlantic Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organized by France and Costa Rica, the summit is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecofinagency.com\/news\/1905-46868-atlantic-africa-presses-for-action-at-un-ocean-summit-in-nice\"><u>the final chance<\/u><\/a>\u201d to revamp the regional ocean population of small fish species. Their stock has barrelled downward since promises of the Lisbon conference of 2022 ran on empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Attending the conference are Senegal and Morocco, two classic examples of declining sardine fisheries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-case-study-senegal\"><strong>Case Study Senegal<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Massive home processing and exports of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/produce\/fish-and-seafood\/senegal-sardines\/\"><u>Senegal\u2019s sardines<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;and sardinella have historically helped plunge the ocean stock by about 90%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By 2017, the country hauled only&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2410-3888\/7\/4\/178\"><u>7.49 million kg<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;of sardines while in 1994 it had averaged 61.6 million kg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exacerbating the population pressure is the legal presence of boats from Russia, China and others that lease nearby waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Northward migration of fish inside Senegal\u2019s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEC) also hinders some local boats from pursuit, benefiting foreign vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-morocco-s-sardine-woes\"><strong>Morocco\u2019s Sardine Woes<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Further north curves Morocco\u2019s important Atlantic blue economy, which lands 80% of the total national fish output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of this, some 14,000 direct employment opportunities come from this coastline, mostly dependant on sardines.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This lifeline currently hangs on the line from political tensions with the European Union (EU) hedged on export tariff possibilities. Notably, Morocco won a case at the Hague in 2024 not to include the EU\u2019s interests in Western Sahara fisheries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the EU issue is not as dire as the fact that 25% of Morocco\u2019s sardinella stock was down early 2025.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rabat is also dealing with a domestic cartel issue that has been fixing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/insights\/prices\/morocco\/sardines\/\"><u>sardines prices<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;for the last 20 years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-xl\/money\/general\/morocco-launches-probe-into-sardine-market-after-20-years-of-alleged-price-fixing\/ar-AA1EpXKU?ocid=BingNewsSerp\"><u>Competition Council<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;on May 15, 2025 began official investigations on culpable organizations representing processors, boat owners and wholesalers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Isolating around 15 stakeholder bodies, the council said that these organizations sometimes created artificial shortage to influence pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By manipulating quotas, the organizations apparently not only distorted market rates but made competition all but impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are the kind of issues that could form the say of reps of Atlantic Africa sardines sector  in Nice. \u00a0The statistics section below continues the discourse by offering the real status of Northwest Africa\u2019s sardinella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-statistics-on-atlantic-africa-sardines\"><strong>Statistics on Atlantic Africa Sardines&nbsp;<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Morocco and Senegal are some of the powerhouses of sardine production and trade in Africa. In Morocco, about 80% of the landings come from the Atlantic coastline, extending from La\u00e2youne to Dakla, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecofinagency.com\/news\/1905-46868-atlantic-africa-presses-for-action-at-un-ocean-summit-in-nice\"><u>Ecofin Agency<\/u><\/a>. Most of this catch ends up making over&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tastingtable.com\/967083\/most-of-the-worlds-canned-sardines-come-from-this-country\/\"><u>850 million kg&nbsp;<\/u><\/a>of canned sardines for sale at home and abroad, each year. Senegal, in its part, relies on over 50 processing plants to can and export sardinella. This is despite sardine and sardinella production slumping nine-fold between 1994 and 2017, to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2410-3888\/7\/4\/178\"><u>7.49 million kg<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;per year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Does Morocco lead worldwide sardines exports<\/strong>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Morocco is the world\u2019s biggest exporter of sardines, with a shipment average of 129.544 million kg, as of 2021. Exports of preserved or prepared sardines and sardinella generated approximately $<a href=\"#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20Top%20exporters%20of%20Prepared%20or%20preserved,%2C%2036%2C832%2C100%20Kg%29%2C%20Portugal%20%28%2467%2C422.77K%20%2C%20\"><u>459.8 million<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;in 2021.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is Senegal a major blue economy<\/strong>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blue economies capitalize on sustainability to generate income from ocean resources, and Senegal is one at least in financial terms. In Senegal, fisheries generate&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/oceanrisk.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Senegal_factsheet.pdf\"><u>2.3%&nbsp;<\/u><\/a>of the GDP, as of 2019. Processing, which includes exports, represents 0.8% of this GDP share. In 2019, exports of all fish amounted to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/oceanrisk.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Senegal_factsheet.pdf\"><u>318.485 million kg<\/u><\/a>, worth 330.7 million CFA francs ($562,851). The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) puts the annual production average at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/openknowledge.fao.org\/server\/api\/core\/bitstreams\/615d2469-348a-48e3-9095-4f911e14a599\/content\"><u>450 million kg<\/u><\/a>, which supports 0.6 million jobs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are sardines a major export for Senegal<\/strong>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senegal ranks 39<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;in the world for prepared sardines exports, as of 2021, according to the&nbsp;<a href=\"#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20Top%20exporters%20of%20Prepared%20or%20preserved,%2C%2036%2C832%2C100%20Kg%29%2C%20Portugal%20%28%2467%2C422.77K%20%2C%20\"><u>World Bank<\/u><\/a>. 2021\u2019s exports clocked at 461,4423 kg, worth $1.114 million. &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A June 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, could change depleting sardines fisheries of Atlantic Africa.\u00a0 Organized by France and Costa Rica, the summit is \u201cthe final chance\u201d to revamp the regional ocean population of small fish species. Their stock has barrelled downward since promises of the Lisbon conference of 2022 ran on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v16.3 (Yoast SEO v20.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Atlantic Africa sardines fishery seeks answers in Nice \u00a0 - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Atlantic Africa sardines fishery seeks answers in Nice \u00a0 - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A June 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, could change depleting sardines fisheries of Atlantic Africa.\u00a0 Organized by France and Costa Rica, the summit is \u201cthe final chance\u201d to revamp the regional ocean population of small fish species. Their stock has barrelled downward since promises of the Lisbon conference of 2022 ran on...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-20T13:30:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-20T13:34:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Sardina_pilchardus1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Timothy Wahome\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Timothy Wahome\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/\",\"name\":\"The Atlantic Africa sardines fishery seeks answers in Nice \u00a0 - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-20T13:30:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-20T13:34:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c0aad9a1f85037798080d75b4302cf8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Atlantic Africa sardines fishery seeks answers in Nice \u00a0\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News\",\"description\":\"Discover the Latest in Food and Agriculture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c0aad9a1f85037798080d75b4302cf8\",\"name\":\"Timothy Wahome\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/636da6c8288b7dcaef01a42b50c3bc41?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/636da6c8288b7dcaef01a42b50c3bc41?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Timothy Wahome\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/author\/twt4wahomegmail-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Atlantic Africa sardines fishery seeks answers in Nice \u00a0 - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Atlantic Africa sardines fishery seeks answers in Nice \u00a0 - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News","og_description":"A June 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, could change depleting sardines fisheries of Atlantic Africa.\u00a0 Organized by France and Costa Rica, the summit is \u201cthe final chance\u201d to revamp the regional ocean population of small fish species. Their stock has barrelled downward since promises of the Lisbon conference of 2022 ran on...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/","og_site_name":"Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News","article_published_time":"2025-05-20T13:30:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-20T13:34:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Sardina_pilchardus1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Timothy Wahome","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Timothy Wahome","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/","url":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/","name":"The Atlantic Africa sardines fishery seeks answers in Nice \u00a0 - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-05-20T13:30:15+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-20T13:34:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c0aad9a1f85037798080d75b4302cf8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/the-atlantic-africa-sardines-fishery-seeks-answers-in-nice\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Atlantic Africa sardines fishery seeks answers in Nice \u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/","name":"Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News","description":"Discover the Latest in Food and Agriculture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c0aad9a1f85037798080d75b4302cf8","name":"Timothy Wahome","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/636da6c8288b7dcaef01a42b50c3bc41?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/636da6c8288b7dcaef01a42b50c3bc41?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Timothy Wahome"},"url":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/author\/twt4wahomegmail-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22508"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22512,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22508\/revisions\/22512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}