Mauritius delegation attends fisheries agreement talks in Mozambique
The Mauritian minister of Agro-Industry and Fisheries, Dr Arvin Boolell left on Monday night to lead a Mauritian delegation to the first Joint Committee on Fisheries which is taking place in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, APA learns here.
According to a communiqué released here by the ministry, the deliberations of the committee which started on Monday will see the participation of entrepreneurs from 15 Mauritian companies in the private sector, a number of parastatal organisations as well as officials from the ministry.
The Mauritian delegation will make a presentation of the status of the fishing industry in Mauritius and engage discussions on joint activities to be implemented in the field of fisheries management and research.
The discussions will also bear on joint surveillance of the maritime economic zone of the two countries, aquaculture, artisanal fisheries development and exchange of information in areas of interest for fishing operators.
The communiqué adds that a memorandum of understanding had already been signed in 2002 with Mozambique on cooperation in the field of fisheries, but that Mauritian operators have until now not been able to make judicious use of the provisos of the memo as each time they have been confronted with severe competition from the use of fishing quotas of shrimps and tuna which are traditionally allocated to EU fishing nations. As a result, Mauritian operators have had in the past to buy quotas on the black market.
The communiqué disclosed that the Mauritian delegation will negotiate for a minimum quota of 5000 tons of shrimps and for 50, 000 tons of tuna, and that they will also request to be allocated fishing zones near Maputo, where fish are abound.
Mozambique had in the past offered Mauritian operators zones around Beira and Quelimane, which are considered as too remote and devoid of adequate infrastructure by the operators.
The discussions are expected to end on Thursday 28th February.