Carapau Fishing catching its own mid-water quota now

Carapau Fishing, a horse mackerel fishing company who was established in November had the re-christening of its recent acquirted horse mackerel trawler on Friday. The trawler Sunfish has been renamed and now sails under the name Carapau I.

The Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Bernard Esau and the Director of Carapau Fishing, Peter Carlson, witnessed this milestone event on Friday as the guests of honour. Carapau Fishing purchased the vessel from one of its shareholders, Namsov Fishing Enterprises, at a price tag of N$137 million.

Namsov and three other fishing companies, Atlantic Sea Products, Diaz Fishing and Spoto Fishing have equal shareholding of 25 % in Carapau Fishing (Pty) Ltd. With the exception of Namsov the other shareholders are newcomer right holders who did not have an own vessel to catch its quota initially. The acquisition effectively empowers these new right holders by owning its first vessel. The fact that Namsov too is a Namibian company makes Carapau Fishing a wholly owned Namibian company with its own 100 % Namibian owned vessel, an insider explained on the sidelines at the re-christening ceremony on Friday.

The fishing vessel’s sales price is funded through a five year financing agreement with Namsov. “The timing of the acquisition favoured Carapau tremendously. We all know what happened to the US Dollar – Namibian Dollar exchange rate”, the minister said pointing to a situation where the US Dollar gained unprecedented strength against the Namibia Dollar. Namibian fish exporters earn in US Dollar. Peter Carlson views the acquisition as a much welcomed direct investment not only in the Namibian fishing industry but also the positive spin-off to the wider economy. Carapau Fishing also invested in the vessel’s upgrade.It now carries 92 crew members and the catch capacity increased to 30 000 tons per annum, from 25 334 tons in 2015. Carapau 1 was built in 1991 in Chemmomorsky Shipyard, Nikolayev in Ukrain. She was acquired by Namsov in June 1997.

 — with Mnr Booysen.

Speaking to The Villager this week, Kasper said the vessel was on foreign registry St Vincent and Grenadines. “Now it has become a Namibian registered vessel ex-Walvis bay. These are all Namibian companies,” Kasper said.

Carapau I is a venture between Namsov, Atlantic Sea Products, Diaz Fishing, and SPOTO Fishing and it is a factory ship of 110 meters. The board of directors of Carapau Fishing (Pty) flagged the vessel and renamed its fishing vessel Starfish II last week at Walvisbay and it was officiated by the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Bernhard Esau.

The agreement was entered into by the parties to form a new horse mackerel venture and the shareholding is divided equally hence the indigenous Namibian right holders own and control 75% of the company. In terms of Horse mackerel, in October 2014, one of the major players in Namibia’s horse mackerel fishing sector, Namsov Fishing Enterprises, filed a court case with the minister of fisheries and marine resources with the intention to get a bigger fishing quota than the one awarded to it.