Economic performances indicators of coastal purse seiners: Case of Atlantic Center of Morocco

Abstract

The small pelagic fishery covers more than 80% of national fish production with more than one million tonnes of catch near coastal areas. This fishing intensity in such a limited area could lead to overfishing and a decline in the economic activity of the coastal purse seiners. Given the possibility of this threat, this article aims to study the economic performance of coastal purse seiners based on their operating accounts. Of a total of 557 registered coastal purse seiners, 128 were studied. On average, they generate a turnover of 2.97 million MAD / year and an annual added value of 2.02 million MAD / boat. Vessel size, operating costs, composition of landings and destination markets are the main factors influencing the economic performance of coastal purse seiners. The retained economic performance indicators are the return on investment and the profit margin. These represent respectively 9.2% and 9.7% for large vessels, and 0% and -0.1% for small vessels. These low levels constitute a major obstacle to the regular renewal of fishing units, due to the relatively high average annual bank credit interest rate (12.5%).

Keywords

• Indicators
• economic performance
• coastal purse seiners
• Morocco