North Africa''s premier international fisheries exhibition AGADIR FISH MOROCCO, will be staged for the third time from April 14-16 2005. The 2003 exhibition, the organisers say, was a real success for the many companies who struck business deals with local operators and suppliers.
A survey at the end of the 2003 exhibition found that 91 per cent were planning to participate in the 2005 Fair and they included more than 100 exhibitors from 20 countries and more than 5,000 visitors of 24 different 24 nationalities.
Apart from being the dominant supplier of ready-to-sell sardine to most of the European supermarket sector Morocco has been expanding its fleet. It is now made up of some 2,500 vessels, of which 700 are being modernised or replaced. The bigger (35m-50m) ships mostly fish cephalopods in southern waters, and the smaller (16m-22m) boats are coastal seiners and trawlers.
The government is running a fleet renewal scheme to replace old, wooden vessels with modern steel ones to make the most of the great potential value of the groundfish, flatfish, shrimp and pelagic species in Moroccan waters.
Urgent identified needs include on-board ice and RSW systems, as well as plastic boxes, tubs and modern handling and storage equipment. Morocco offers considerable port investment potential.
While a number of ports have been modernised many others generally have basic facilities. Major modernisation is needed to achieve a standard that will allow generation of the high value products that can take advantage of lucrative markets in Europe and the Far-East. In many areas the government if offering co-financing and grants to help ports move up the value-added processing chain. The current catch of 1,5 million tonnes is up 23 per cent in the past year and has a the potential to exceed two million tonnes.
