On the coast of Palma district, in Cabo Delgado, a buying network now guarantees fishers a market. Free ice keeps the catch fresh from landing to processing. The model cuts post-harvest losses and lifts incomes along a long-neglected coast.
The scheme answers a chronic problem along the northern coast. There, catch has long spoiled for want of cold storage. Buying points now hand out free ice to fishers on the islands and coast.
The Fish and Seafood Processing Factory of Mocímboa da Praia runs the scheme. Its plant already handles more than 90 tonnes of fish and seafood a month. Director-general Momade Selemane says a logistics base in Palma is nearly complete. It has started buying the catch that the district’s fishers land.
In its first phase, the plant absorbs the entire Mocímboa da Praia catch. The move into Palma extends the same guarantee to a second district.
Asian capital behind an African value chain
The money behind the build comes from the Mozambique LNG Foundation. It financed the processing unit for more than USD 4 million. Seven concessionaires of the Mozambique LNG project founded it. Five are Asian: Japan’s Mitsui, Thailand’s PTTEP, and India’s ONGC, Oil India and Bharat Petroleum.
So Asian LNG partners already sit at the heart of this coastal economy. The foundation reports more than 2,000 fisherfolk with improved market access across Cabo Delgado. The fisheries plant is one strand of that wider effort.
Europe opens a market, not a contest
The factory now works toward European Union export certification. For Asia, that ambition expands markets rather than threatening them. A certified, traceable supply base can serve Asian buyers just as easily. That matters, because Asia now anchors global seafood demand.
Asia-Pacific accounts for the largest share of world seafood consumption, near 45%. China turned from a net seafood exporter into a net importer in 2022. A fast-growing middle class keeps pulling more seafood into Asian markets. Japan and South Korea keep paying premiums for fresh, traceable fish.
So far, more than 35 tonnes of processed fish have reached Beira and Maputo. The next step is a certified base that Asian LNG partners helped build. As northern Mozambique proves the model, both Europe and Asia gain a new supplier.
