A SUBREGIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN FISHERIES.

The FAO EastMed project has devoted a great deal of effort to setting, implementing and disseminating a collection methodology for socio-economic data in the region and one of the main motivations for this was to have homogeneous data that would allow for regional analyses to be conducted. The methodology consists of a multivariate sampling survey based on a statistical design where the licensed fishing fleet is stratified into homogenous segments and the sampling unit (fishing vessels) is selected randomly. Comparable data which resulted from this sampling methodology was produced from fleets which share similar resources and fishing grounds and yet operate in a region that is highly heterogeneous from a socio-economic point of view. This makes the analysis particularly interesting and meaningful. The analysis, which was based on indicators, was the result of combined work completed by national experts during the EastMed Working Group on Fisheries Data Analysis, FAO, Rome, 10 to 14 September 2018. The fisheries production in the subregion in 2016 totalled 449 400 tonnes, with a cumulative value of USD 1.2 billion. The fishing fleet comprised 36 143 vessels which operated for three million days and directly generated a total of 66 383 jobs, calculated on a full-time basis (data for Turkey includes fisheries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea). When comparing the value added per fisheries worker to the same indicator calculated for agriculture, the performance of the fisheries sector was stronger than that of agriculture in Egypt and Turkey. In all the other countries, the value added per agricultural worker was markedly higher than that generated by fisheries. Generally, the two main costs are labour and energy costs, but the performance of the fleet segments was quite variable and changed according to the factor being analysed. It should be noted that in the region the only fleets for which fuel is not subsidized are in Lebanon and Palestine, while the others are all subsidized to varying degrees. Overall, Turkey had the most profitable fleet segments in the region. In terms of fuel efficiency, Turkey and Lebanon performed well, probably as a result of a number of factors, including both the fishing areas and the targeted species. The salary per fisher against the minimum wage showed the best performance in Egypt, where a fisher on average earned double the minimum wage paid by the manufacturing sector. On the other hand, in Palestine the average salary of a fisher was below the minimum wage and dangerously close to the international poverty line. In Palestine, the fleet profitability appeared to be suffering and the input costs for the activity - particularly the fuel - were very high and this impacted the salaries of the fishers. However, on a more positive note, two out of the five Palestinian fleet segments did show positive short-term performance. Generally, the small-scale fleets were shown to be performing steadily, with positive performance above the national average for some indicators, with Greece the only exception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]