Shem Oirere

Shem Oirere

Contributing Editor

Shem Oirere is a Kenyan journalist who previously worked for daily newspapers as a general news correspondent, business reporter and sub-editor before turning to full-time freelancing. For the more than 20 years, he has covered various sectors of Africa’s economy including agriculture, food processing, and maritime industries. A graduate of the University of South Africa, he has traveled within and outside Africa covering various industry events that have a bearing on the continent’s economy on behalf of different international consumer and trade publications. He currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya.

Published on
November 15, 2021

Namibia is taking its fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing a notch higher by planning to develop and use unmanned aerial vehicles in the detection and prevention of IUU, according to a New Era report.

An ongoing study is exploring the viability of deploying drones in monitoring, control, and surveillance activities aimed at combating IUU within Namibia’s exclusive economic zone. The Ministry of Fisheries

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Published on
November 12, 2021

Tunisia’s Interprofessional Group of Fishing Products (GIPP), a public economic agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, Hydraulic Resources, and Fisheries, is predicting more than 100 percent growth of the North African country’s aquaculture industry by 2030 …

Photo courtesy of the Food and Agriculture

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Published on
November 12, 2021

African countries battling illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) should embrace tighter port-control procedures to deny the illicit catch a market and cut off perpetrators from their profits, according to nonprofit Trygg Mat Tracking.

Trygg Mat Tracking Executive Director Duncan Copeland said port authorities should have capacity to “make rapid risk assessments to inform the key decisions on whether to let a vessel into port,

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Published on
November 11, 2021

The former CEO of the state-owned National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) has told a High Court in Namibia he never received direct instructions on how funds earned from sale of the company’s fishing quotas were to be disbursed.

Mike Nghipunya has been charged with 30 counts including racketeering, contravening Namibia’s Anti-Corruption Act, conspiracy, fraud, theft, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, as part of

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Published on
November 8, 2021

Aquaculture investment fund Aqua-Spark has announced plans to invest in catfish-producing companies in sub-Saharan-African markets as part of its strategy to support the growth of the region’s aquaculture industry.

In a statement Aqua-Spark said it is seeking to invest in large-scale producers that could become platforms for growth for the broader aquaculture industry through local outgrower programs.

“Both in Nigeria as well as in

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Published on
November 8, 2021

South African seafood company Oceana Group has announced a delay in the publication of its latest financial results for the year ended 30 September 2021 and issue of financial statement to shareholders. The delay means Financial Results will not be published at the end of November 2021 as is customary, the company said in a statement to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which requires financial results be published within three months and audited

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Published on
November 2, 2021

A new investigation has exposed how China is defying international law to carry out illegal fishing operations in Somali water, while subjecting foreign crew to mistreatment.

A new Environmental Justice Foundation report claims six Chinese fishing vessels entered Somali waters without permission and used prohibited fishing gear, such as trawl nets, in fishing zones that have been reserved for Somali fishing

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Published on
November 1, 2021

Uncertainty has gripped the coastal fishing communities in Kenya after a ruling by the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) and largely agreed with Somalia’s claim of ownership of a huge chunk of offshore area that served as a key fishing ground for the past 35 years.

The 100,000-square-kilometer offshore area has been the center maritime territorial dispute between the two neighboring countries since

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Published on
October 28, 2021

South Africa Minister of Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy has agreed to review the 2021/2022 total allowable catch for the country's West Coast rock lobster (WCRL) fishery after coming under pressure from small-scale fishers and other fishing communities.

Creecy has asked the newly appointed Consultative Advisory Forum (CAF) to carry out the TAC review, which comes shortly after the 15 October, 2021, announcement of a

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Published on
October 25, 2021

Namibia's High Court has delayed a pretrial hearing of 10 people accused of involvement in the Fishrot scandal to January 2022.

The Fishrot scandal centers around allegedly corrupt dealings between Namibian firm Fishcor and Icelandic seafood company Samherji involving more than USD 650 million (EUR 536 million). High Court Judge Christie Liebenberg said the accused, who include former fisheries minister Bernhard Esau and

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