Presented by Malcolm Dickson (WorldFish) at the Livestock and Fish Value Chain Component Planning Meeting, Nairobi Kenya, 6-7 December 2012

1. Egypt Aquaculture Value Chain
Component Situation Report
2012
Malcolm Dickson
Livestock and Fish Value Chain Component
Planning Meeting, Nairobi Kenya, 6-7
December 2012

2. Livestock & Fish value
chains meeting
6th December 2012, Nairobi

3. Egyptian aquaculture
• 985,000 tonnes aquaculture production in 2010 (340,100
tonnes in 2000)*
• Mostly private sector fresh or brackish water ponds, growing
tilapia (60% of aquaculture production) & mullet (12%), also
African catfish (1.1%) and carp (20%?) mainly in public sector
facilities
• Also tilapia cage culture but this has been actively
discouraged
• Some private-sector seabass & sea bream in cages & tanks
*GAFRD statistics

4. A significant industry
• Nearly all for domestic market
• Aquaculture represents 70.3% of Egyptian fish production &
59% of total fish consumption
• Fish (esp. small tilapia) is the lowest cost animal protein
source (LE 10-12/kg cf. chicken LE 20/kg, beef LE 60/kg)
• Egyptian aquaculture value chain employs at least 100,000
people (full-time equivalent), around 50% youth
• Two-thirds of African aquaculture production is from Egypt
• Egypt is the second largest global tilapia aquaculture
producer and largest global mullet aquaculture producer

5. Production centers
Kafr el Sheikh
Sharkia
Behera
Fayoum

6. Egyptian aquaculture

7. Egyptian aquaculture value chain assessment
• Study carried out by WorldFish Center in Sept 2011
• A ‘team’ approach using a range of enumerators and industry
contacts
• VCA used to provide facts & figures for the project proposal
submitted SDC in November 2011
• Improving Employment and Incomes through Development of
Egypt’s Aquaculture Sector (IEIDEAS) project
• Paper on VCA published in Aquaculture, also WorldFish
Project Report 2011-54

8. The IEIDEAS Project
• Project approved December 2011, field activities started
Feb/March 2012
– Dissemination of ‘Abbassa strain’ genetically improved
tilapia to the Egyptian aquaculture industry
– Development of Best Management Practice guidelines &
BMP training delivered through Producer Organisations
– Support for women retailers (managed by CARE)
– Expansion of aquaculture in Upper Egypt (managed by
CARE)
– Improving the policy environment for aquaculture

9. The IEIDEAS project
Impact
Impact
• • Disseminate improved tilapia •Increased
•Increased
Disseminate improved tilapia
seed • • Develop/strengthen women employment
employment
seed Develop/strengthen women
• • Develop & implement best •Increased or
•Increased or
Develop & implement best retailer organisations
retailer organisations
management practices (feed, • • Develop new added value sustained
sustained
management practices (feed, Develop new added value
seed, water use) products profitability
profitability
seed, water use) products
• • Develop/strengthen producer • • Develop new markets for •Increased fish
•Increased fish
Develop/strengthen producer Develop new markets for
organisations aquaculture products production
production
organisations aquaculture products
• • Deliver training through POs •Sustained access
•Sustained access
Deliver training through POs
to affordable fish
to affordable fish
•Improved human
•Improved human
nutrition
nutrition
• • Improve policy environment for aquaculture
Improve policy environment for aquaculture
• • Expand aquaculture in Upper Egypt (El Mineya) )
Expand aquaculture in Upper Egypt (El Mineya

10. Outcome 1 – Improved profitability
• Improved Abbassa strain tilapia (30% better growth)
released to fish farmers
• Seed value chain study completed
• Best Management Practice survey
• Best Management Practice training of trainers
• BMP training going on now
• Representation of the industry at policy level

11. Outcome 2 – Women fish retailers
• Implemented by CARE
• Study completed
• Groups identified and 2 formed so far
• Groups receive business planning training, write
business plans including interventions
• First group wanted ice-boxes, transport (motorised
tricycle, deep freezer
• Plus official recognition within marketplace (space,
agreed fee rates, status)

12. Outcome 3 – Upper Egypt aquaculture
• Managed by CARE supported technically by WorldFish
• Initial study completed
• Technical support and training for existing farms
• Trying to identify new opportunities – desert farms
pumping water from wells, ox-bow lakes near the Nile
• Now looking at pro-poor aquaculture – homestead
catfish tanks managed by women

13. Outcome 4 – Policy & Institutions
• Egyptian aquaculture constrained by laws over location
of farms and use of water
• Aim to change policy but it will take time – especially at
the present time
• Need to take into account priorities of other users,
regulatory authorities
• No representative organisation for Aquaculture sector at
present
• Market opportunities constrained by attitudes to farmed
fish – only for poor people?

14. M4P, GTA and Results Measurement
• Need to make sure the project is addressing the needs
of poor people & women
• Also logframe needed to be revised – loose indicators,
unachievable targets, new objectives
• Making Markets Work For the Poor co-developed by
SDC – emphasis on addressing poverty and
sustainability
• Gender Transformative Approach – beyond ‘gender
aware’
• Results Measurement – uses Results Chains to tease
out the causal links leading to common ‘poverty level’
goals of interest to donors – employment, income, scale

15. livestockfish.cgiar.org