Fisheries at the heart of a development issue in Mauritania: Small coastal pelagics between market logic and nutritional rationality

Abstract

This article characterizes the strategies, logics and games of actors around the exploitation of small pelagics in Mauritania. The dynamics of exploitation and development of small pelagics is supported by a policy of domiciliation of catches. This policy tries to find a balance between market logic and nutritional logic. This work is based on data from the Mauritanian Institute for Oceanographic Research and Fisheries (IMROP) (2010-2020) and the results of surveys carried out in early 2016 and late 2020. It appears that flour and fish oil factories-whose growth is driven in Mauritania by an attractive tax policy (establishment of a free zone in Nouadhibou) and a relatively low cost of labor remuneration-have monopolized artisanal and coastal fishing catches (Senegalese, Chinese and Turkish) through chartering contracts and fishing agreements. Added to this environment is a process of relocation of flour factories from certain countries, notably neighboring Morocco, to Mauritania, in a global context marked by a significant decline in the flour industry. There is, however, a nutritional emergency with a population growing at 2.3% per year. The public authorities are putting in place mechanisms to contain these flour factories-by introducing new taxes on turnover in addition to the 9% levied by the Mauritanian company for the marketing of fish (SMCP)-which represent at their eyes a threat both to the sustainability of resources and their environment and to food security. In a logic of meeting nutritional needs, the National Fish Distribution Company (SNDP) has been set up, which benefits from a compulsory contribution of 2% on the catches of industrial trawlers. The reconciliation of market and nutritional logic is a priority for those who want to ensure the food security of populations.