Rabobank, GSA report finds Egyptian tilapia output on the path toward recovery

Egypt's tilapia sector is expected to post year-over-year growth in both 2023 and 2024, marking a positive shift from the stagnant output the North African country’s aquaculture sector has reported since 2020, according to a joint report from the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) and Rabobank.

Specifically, the report, which references data from the GSA and Dutch banking and financial services provider Rabobank, estimates Egyptian tilapia production to grow 6.2 percent in 2023 and will grow 5.2 percent in 2024.

Meanwhile, five other African tilapia-producing countries – Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – will post combined estimated production growth of 15.6 percent in 2023 and 17.6 percent in 2024, according to the report.

This brighter outlook is largely due to “additional culturing capacity put in place in recent years” by African governments, “as well as national policies promoting aquaculture fueled by rising local demand,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

For Egypt in particular, the predicted growth in tilapia production is partly thanks to the country’s strategy of implementing market-friendly policies such as pursuing “private-sector investments and enabling public-sector interventions such as access to state land.”