The Egyptian tilapia value chain
experience
Froukje Kruijssen (WorldFish)
Livestock and Fish expert workshop on systems analysis for value chain transformation
Amsterdam, 19 November 2014

Egyptian aquaculture sector
Data source: GAFRD, 2012
• Approximately 6000 tilapia farmers
• Aquaculture average growth of 10.4% per year
• Aquaculture now provides about one fish per person per week

Tilapia value chain assessment
• Tilapia VCA study carried out by WorldFish in Sept 2011
• A ‘team’ approach using a range of enumerators and
industry contacts
• VCA used to provide facts & figures for a project proposal
submitted to SDC in November 2011
• VCA paper on published in Aquaculture, also WorldFish
Project Report 2011-54
• Improving Employment and Incomes through
Development of Egypt’s Aquaculture Sector (IEIDEAS)
project

VCA – key findings
• No exports – short and
simple VC
• No processing – all fish sold
fresh or live
• Little spoilage but value loss
• Employment is around 14
FTEs per 100 tonnes
• evenly divided between
youth and older workers
• women mainly in retail
• Producers receive 72% final
consumer price from: Macfadyen et al. 2011

VCA - key problems & market-based solutions
Problems
• Poor fry, stocking and feed
management
• Penetration of poor rural markets
• Institutional framework
Proposed solutions
• Increase productivity,
profitability, sustainability
• Increase employment for women
• Expand aquaculture in El Mineya
• Improve policy & regulatory
environments

Improving Employment and Incomes
through Development of Egypt’s
Aquaculture Sector (IEIDEAS)
SDC funded project

The IEIDEAS Project
• Project approved December 2011, field activities started
Feb/March 2012
• Funding of 1st phase until Dec 2014, transition period in 2015,
2nd phase from 2016 onwards
• Dissemination of ‘Abbassa strain’ genetically improved tilapia to
the Egyptian aquaculture industry
• Development of Best Management Practice guidelines &
delivery of BMP training
• Support for women retailers (managed by CARE)
• Expansion of aquaculture in Upper Egypt (managed by CARE)
• Improving the policy environment for aquaculture

Abbassa improved strain
Fish farms
Hatcheries
Broodstock
multiplication
centers
Abbassa
research
center
• Broodstock supplied to
BMCs in 2012
• BMCs supplied
broodstock to 124
hatcheries in 2013
• 45 farms supplied with all-male
fry from BMCs in
2013
• Mass production of all-male
fry by hatcheries in
2014 – 1200 fish farms
stocked with Abbassa
improved strain (but target
was 2000)
2012
2014
2013

Best Management Practices training
• 15 subject areas; site selection to post-harvest handling
• Training delivered by farmers to farmers
• Small group, practical training
• Total 2794 training sessions (Aug 2014), each session with
around 10 trainees
• Total number of 2146 trainees (but not all topics)
1
14 15
24 17
32 33
69
89
106
97
163
181 179
194
264 263 258
207
198
208
160
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Oct 12Nov 12Dec 12 Jan 13 Feb 13 Mar
13
Apr 13 May
13
June
13
July 13Aug 13 Sep 13 Oct 13 Nov
13
Dec 13 Jan 14 Feb 14 Mar
14
Apr 14 May
14
Jun 14 Jul 14
Total # of training sessions delivered in the main four Governorates.

Best Management Practices training
IEIDEAS facebook site: www.facebook.com/WorldfishAbbassa

Support for women retailers (CARE)
• Six retailer groups formed under
CDAs in Shakshouk (Fayoum),
Mineya (2), Kafr el Sheikh,
Behera & Abou Hammad
(Sharkia)
• Capacity building; business
planning, marketing, hygiene
• Market improvements: ice-boxes,
construction of market area,
motor-tricycles for distribution,
fish distribution centres
• 21 Village savings and loans
groups established

Innovation platform
• Aim to develop policy environment
• Expected outcome: strengthened capacity of
aquaculture producer and industry organizations
to represent their members’ interests
• IP identified and prioritized issues
• Six issues taken forward by working groups
• Egypt has difficult policy environment so
gestation time for reaching impacts are
particularly long

Issues prioritized
1. Farmer representation in policy and decision-making
2. Increasing prevalence of fish disease
3. Low quality feeds and high production costs
4. Difficulty of obtaining a license for fish farming and
limited possibility to own land
5. Deterioration of water quality
6. Lack of well-equipped fish markets/formal selling space

2015 priorities
• Rigorous impact assessment of G9 tilapia strain
and adoption of improved BMPs in terms of
profitability and productivity
• Outcomes of work with retailers in terms of jobs,
sales volumes, fish value and women
empowerment
• Youth employment in Aswan Governorate project:
The fish aspects of project focus on introduction
of aquaculture, improving fish processing (L&F)
and developing new products (L&F) and improved
fisheries management in Lake Nasser (non-L&F)

CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish
livestockfish.cgiar.org
CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food secure future. The CGIAR
Research Program on Livestock and Fish aims to increase the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish systems
in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and fish more available and affordable across the developing world.