Mozambique: Mocímboa processing unit aims to source 314 tonnes per year from local fishermen

A fish processing unit began operations in Mocímboa da Praia this week, planning to buy 314 tonnes annually from 2,000 fishermen, boosting the northern Mozambican district where the first terrorist attack took place in 2017. “The goal is to provide a solution for all fishermen and ensure everything is sold. They just have to produce,” said the unit’s manager, Mamade Sulemane, in an interview with Lusa.

The facility is operated by the company Unipesca Pemba and has already employed its first 12 local workers. This unit is part of a fish supply chain programme financed with US$4.5 million (€3.8 million) by the Mozambique LNG consortium, led by TotalEnergies, which resumed construction last week of the Area 1 Rovuma Basin gas megaproject in Cabo Delgado, five years after suspension due to terrorist attacks. The programme also involved the purchase of refrigerated trucks, boats, and the installation of an ice factory in Palma, as well as the repair of 100 motorised fishing vessels belonging to local fishermen.

“We will have shifts, so this year the target is to reach 70 workers. Around 40% of the production will be for export and 10% for local consumption. The rest will be sold elsewhere in the country,” added Sulemane, noting that the unit is expected to directly benefit 10,000 people living in the coastal areas of Cabo Delgado.

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Of the 314 tonnes the unit will buy annually from local fishermen, 179 tonnes will be high-quality fish, 105 tonnes octopus, 21 tonnes squid and cuttlefish, five tonnes shrimp, and two tonnes lobster. The result will be the production and sale of 30 tonnes annually per each of the three planned shifts, totalling a processing capacity of 90 tonnes per year. The unit was inaugurated on 29 January by Mozambican President Daniel Chapo and TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné, who on the same day in Afungi, in the same province, relaunched the gas megaproject valued at US$20 billion (€17.5 billion).

“As you can see, Mocímboa da Praia is a rich district. All districts in the Cabo Delgado province are rich,” Daniel Chapo said on the occasion, emphasising that the new unit will serve the entire coastal area, including Palma and Quionga, meeting the needs of fishermen along the entire coast. “Our fishermen, before this factory existed, had no way to preserve the fish.

Our young people went to the beach, had the fish, but had to sell it the same day, because if they did not sell it the same day, the fish would rot,” said the Head of State during the inauguration. “It is not only this factory, but we also have logistics consisting of trucks that can go to fetch fish in Palma, Quionga, and all along our coast and bring it here to our factory,” he added.

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