Celebrating Fish as a Superfood

I am a foodie, maybe a gourmet foodie, or perhaps a food junkie. A foodie is universally known as someone with an avid interest in the pleasure of food in multiple cultural, social, economic, and spiritual settings.

My journey into ‘foodie land’ has been inspired by my experience as a researcher in the fishing industry and other agri-commodity value chains.

Although fish is my primary indulgence – whether braised, grilled, fresh, deep-fried, smoked, or sun-dried – I love it when it is complemented by other food types of all colours.

At one United Nations Food Systems Summit the world recognised the importance of food in our lives and its role in global trade and in the context of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

We were challenged and inspired as individuals and institutions to consider how best to sustain production systems.

Nurturing coordinated global supply chains, especially within the context of Covid-19, is a daunting task.

In a recent co-authored paper titled ‘Nourishing Nations during Pandemics’, published by Maritime Studies, we argued for promoting aquatic foods as superfoods and for their value chain support, using a holistic well-being approach.

This includes nutritional well-being, social well-being, economic well-being and physical well-being.

Superfoods are unique, given that they do not fall into one category of dietary contribution, such as grains for carbohydrates, or meat for protein.

Fish as a superfood comprises low-fat proteins, omega fatty acids and essential vitamins and minerals.

These micronutrients in fish contribute greatly to food and nutrition security through brain development, heart functioning, boosting immune systems, strong bones and teeth, and supports the health of mother and child during the first 1 000 days.

THE ECONOMICS

The sad part of the food systems debate is that most governments, especially in the developing world, invest less in this vital food system for nutrition security and perhaps more in staple crops like grains and tubers, which arguably promotes malnourishment in the absence of a balanced diet.

The greater contribution of aquatic foods to grey matter infrastructure is often ignored, as well as opportunities for including youth and women entrepreneurs and generating export earnings in its value chain transactions.

In many parts of West Africa, women play a bigger role in value chain activities and cross-border trade through small-scale fisheries.

They support close to 75% of fish protein intake and other nutritional needs in household food consumption, as well as financing post-harvest utilisation and marketing.

Moreover, fish is a major export commodity in the region and ranges from 10% of export values in Sierra Leone to 50% in Mauritania.

In Senegal, fisheries and the blue economy account for a quarter of the labour force in coastal regions. Similar regional contexts and national examples can be found in northern, eastern, central and southern Africa.

Taking advantage of sustaining this superfood is crucial, not only for nutritional security, but also for livelihoods and export earnings.

Moreover, fish is the most traded agri-commodity in the global marketplace – amounting to about US$160 billion, and employing close to a billion people in all the allied supply chain and transportation industries.

This competitiveness is due to diverse production systems, such as wild-capture fisheries and aquaculture, and products that have been differentiated into multiple forms with eclectic preferences and consumer tastes such as canned, frozen, dried and fresh fish products.

Moreover, the diversity in fish species also captures a greater percentage of the agri-commodity market share, considering, for instance, shellfish (lobster and shrimps), groundfish (hake and grouper), pelagic fish (tuna, mackerel and sardines) and cephalopods (squid and octopus).

Today, most of the fish traded globally come from developing countries, which are most likely to also benefit from better management policies and governing reforms.

Addressing policy gaps to achieve increased yields and support infrastructure for value chain activities in special economic zones is crucial for maintaining aquatic foods’ contribution to well-being and regional trade.

However, this has to be done within the context of emerging trade policies on subsidies at the World Trade Organisation and through attention to sustainable aquaculture development in both inland and coastal systems.

*Ahmed Khan is the chief fisheries officer in the department of agriculture and agro-industry at the African Development Bank Group.

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