Senegal Seabass Crisis Impacts UK

The Atlantic Drain: Your Supermarket Seabass and a West African Crisis

A web of global industry connections reveals how British consumers are unknowingly linked to nourishment scarcity and hardship in Senegal. The insatiable demand for farmed fish, fed on species vital to local diets, highlights a critical flaw in "responsibly sourced" seafood.

Joal-Fadiouth's Silent Fish Market

At the seafood trading area's entrance in Joal-Fadiouth, a seaside settlement in Senegal's central area, a quiet desolation now reigns. A handful of women occupy a small, shaded structure. They recall a vibrant past. Not many years ago, this marketplace teemed with individuals selling frozen treats and salt merchants. Animal-powered carts transported plentiful, newly procured aquatic life. The female workers diligently applied sun-drying techniques, salted, and then sorted this aquatic bounty into budget-friendly servings. Community families depended on these servings for their meals. Today, that lively commerce has ceased. The traditional fish preservation methods, once a community cornerstone, now find scarce fish to process. This downturn directly afflicts the local economy and nourishment availability. This unseen burden represents the true price of supermarket sea bass.

Livelihoods Lost to the Global Chain

Commerce is now stagnant, Aissatou Wade, an individual among the settlement's few surviving artisanal fish preparers, confirms. She expresses that lacking seafood to offer means funds for children's education, vital food procurement, or medical care access vanish. Wade alongside her co-workers are casualties of the extensive aquaculture procurement network. Aquaculture stands as the globe's most swiftly enlarging food generation industry. This sector's expansion, however, casts a considerable shadow over places such as Joal-Fadiouth. The repercussions affect families, influencing their capacity to satisfy fundamental necessities. The complex international system gives precedence to output for faraway markets above community welfare.

The Fishmeal Connection to Nourishment Scarcity

An exploding global commerce involving countless tiny aquatic creatures, captured to nourish larger cultivated marine life in other nations, has severely depleted Senegalese aquatic reserves. This activity takes away a vital nourishment source the nation's people depend upon. Until recently, this intricate and non-transparent procurement system effectively hid which corporations made use of fish-derived powder from Senegal. Nevertheless, a comprehensive two-annum probe by DeSmog and the Guardian, an environmental investigative group, which covered three nations, now suggests UK purchasers play a part in West African nourishment shortages and joblessness. This concealed trade directly weakens local sustenance.

Tracing the Path to UK Supermarkets

The probe carefully scrutinised commerce figures and maritime logs. Field journalism from three nations supplemented these figures. Discoveries indicated that sea bass and sea bream which is cultivated in Turkey consume fish-derived powder sent from three Senegalese facilities. These are the Omega Fishing company and Africa Feed, located to Dakar's south, plus Afric Azote at the Dakar port. Local female seafood preparers, who must maintain accessible pricing for their clientele, find themselves unable to match the factories' buying power. This economic strain increasingly pushes them from their customary occupations.

"Responsibly Sourced" Labels Questioned

The information trail extended from these Senegalese production sites, through Turkish aquaculture operations renowned for bass and bream farming, arriving directly at the Billingsgate fish exchange in London. It proceeded to the retail displays in grocery stores throughout the United Kingdom. Here, seafood cultivated at facilities utilizing Senegalese fish-derived powder often bears designations like "responsibly acquired" or "responsibly cultivated." These accreditations originate from entities such as the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) alongside other certifying bodies. Nevertheless, the procurement methods bring up serious doubts regarding the genuine significance of such designations.

Supermarkets Implicated in the Chain

The probe uncovered that a minimum of five supermarket chains in the UK offered for sale sea bass or sea bream originating from Kılıç Deniz, one of Turkey's most substantial fish cultivators, or its offshoot Agromey. These Turkish enterprises acquire fish-derived powder manufactured from diminutive Senegalese marine life. Purveyor registers, product labeling within stores, and discussions with industry experts directly connect Asda, Waitrose, Lidl, Aldi, and Co-op to Kılıç's farming operations. This linkage implicates these prominent retailers in the unsustainable procurement network that stretches to West Africa. The grocery store demand propels the fish-derived powder sector.

Image Credit - The Guardian

Wholesalers' Role in Distribution

Two wholesale distributors in the United Kingdom, Ocean Fish and New England Seafood International, provide these retail chains. These distribution companies also utilize products from Kılıç and Agromey. The inquiry additionally discovered that these same two wholesale operations supplied sea bass or sea bream to Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, and Marks & Spencer. It was not feasible to definitively ascertain if the particular seafood shipments to this latter grocery group originated from Kılıç or a different provider. The intricate supply system frequently conceals precise points of origin.

Scale of the UK Market Connection

Official records show that, together, these wholesale distributors furnished supermarkets with 473 metric tons of seafood cultivated by Kılıç, or its affiliate Agromey, throughout the preceding four-year span. This amount is considerable, adequate to fill grocery store displays with almost five million individual portions. The sheer volume underscores the noteworthy UK consumer market for these items. This demand directly adds to the strain on Senegalese aquatic populations. The transit from West African marine environments to UK dining tables is long and has major consequences.

Shift in Factory Raw Material Usage

Production facilities situated on Senegal's seaboard historically depended on secondary materials. These encompassed aquatic animal craniums and caudal fins from the harbor and different processing plants. However, these operations currently make use of an escalating volume of newly caught open-water, or "forage," species. These diminutive, pelagic species form the foundation of local artisanal fishing endeavors across Africa. This change directly vies with community nourishment sources and customary angling livelihoods. The requirement for whole aquatic creatures by these plants notably changes regional ecosystems and financial structures.

The Unseen Burden of Farmed Fish

Béatrice Gorez, from the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements, notes that cultivated aquatic products frequently present as a standardized, shopper-friendly item. She highlights the general unawareness of its damaging effects on West African populations. The ease for shoppers in prosperous countries conceals a grave emergency for individuals dependent on the source fisheries. This unacknowledged ecological and societal expense is commonly disregarded in buying choices. The "appealing item" carries a substantial human toll.

Turkey: An Aquaculture Powerhouse

Located at a distance exceeding 3,000 miles from Senegal, Turkey functions as a dominant force in aquaculture. The nation furnishes over fifty percent of the global sea bass supply and one-third of all sea bream. Kılıç Deniz is a premier producer of sea bass and bream within Turkey. The enterprise generates annual revenues of $443 million. This company, which provisions wholesale distributors and grocery chains in the United Kingdom, ranks as the most significant purchaser of Senegalese fish-derived powder when compared to ten other Turkish competitors. Customs figures reveal Kılıç has imported fish-derived powder and aquatic oils from Senegal consistently each year across the recent four-year period, amounting to 5,400 metric tons. This volume could have satisfied the suggested nourishment requirements for close to two million individuals.

Other Turkish Connections to West Africa

The inquiry also determined that sea bass and bream nourished with fish-derived powder from Senegal might have reached United Kingdom marketplaces through three additional aquaculture businesses in Turkey that similarly purchase this commodity from western Africa. However, the investigators could not follow the transit of these specific items to their ultimate retail destinations within the UK. This absence of clearness in the procurement network impedes shoppers and regulatory bodies from monitoring the actual origin and effects of the seafood they acquire. The intricacy advantages those aiming to hide unsustainable methods.

Kılıç's Response to Findings

Kılıç communicated to the Guardian it was not violating any statutes through its acquisition of primary resources from Senegal. The enterprise mentioned it does not oversee the angling regulations of different nations. Recognizing what it termed "apprehensions within global public sentiment," Kılıç also conveyed a belief that they could curtail their procurement activities from Senegal. The enterprise maintains its sourcing is lawful, thereby transferring accountability for resource stewardship to Senegal. This answer avoids the moral questions surrounding its purchasing choices.

Image Credit - The Guardian

Disputed Claims on Fish Species

Kılıç asserted that aquatic oils and fish-derived powder from Senegal constituted under one percent of its entire fish-derived powder acquisitions in the year 2024. The company further added that the marine species involved included bigeye grunts and bumpers, which, according to Kılıç, people do not capture for direct human dietary needs. However, seafood merchants and alternative informants in Senegal challenge this assertion. Local populations maintain these species are indeed part of their dietary intake, directly refuting the company's statements. This difference underscores the gap between industrial assertions and community realities.

Impact on Local Entrepreneurs

Aby Diouf, a seafood vendor, recollects distributing desiccated aquatic products to distant inland locations such as Burkina Faso and Mali. She now contends that a significant portion of this seafood goes directly to the manufacturing plants, thereby circumventing the female traders who anticipate its arrival at the coastline for purchase. Diouf articulated a former sense of achievement. They constructed their homes, acquired vehicles, purchased vessels for their spouses, and even provided funding for their angling expeditions. Diouf, who supported and schooled her seven offspring through this commerce, currently leases out synthetic seating for ceremonies like christenings and nuptials. Her experience typifies the erosion of local affluence.

Global Catch Diverted to Animal Feed

In the year 2022, processors converted almost one-fourth of the entire worldwide harvest of untamed marine species, equivalent to 17 million metric tons, into powder or oleaginous extracts. A predominant share of this processed material served as nourishment for cultivated aquatic life. This redirection of consumable aquatic life from direct human ingestion to animal nourishment brings up major food security questions. The magnitude of this activity highlights the enormous strain on global wild aquatic populations. It also emphasizes the inefficiency of transforming wild aquatic life into cultivated varieties.

Small Percentages, Devastating Local Impacts

When an enterprise cultivates millions of aquatic creatures annually, even a minor fraction of its fish-derived powder acquisitions can exert a disproportionately large effect within Senegal. Christina Hicks, a specialist in artisanal fishing practices and nourishment from Lancaster University, states that alterations appearing insignificant on an international level might precipitate catastrophic results at the community level. The interconnectedness of the worldwide food system signifies that consumption habits in one global area can directly injure vulnerable populations in other locations. This unequal consequence is a primary worry.

Hunger Crisis in Senegal

During 2023, a period when the nation's exports of fish-derived powder ascended to a peak unseen in eight years, continuously elevated nourishment prices propelled Senegal towards critical stages of widespread starvation. Didier Gascuel, a marine life ecologist associated with the Institut Agro Rennes-Angers in France's western region and someone with experience residing and laboring in Senegal, reports that numerous thousands of females became unemployed. The link between augmented fish-derived powder exports and escalating local starvation points to a direct connection. The misdirection of aquatic resources considerably adds to food insecurity.

Entering "Danger Zones"

Gascuel cautioned that communities are moving into hazardous territories. He further elaborated that excessive harvesting, when coupled with climatic shifts and deterioration of aquatic environments, possesses the capability to instigate widespread systemic breakdowns. These ecological strains, alongside unsustainable industrial activities, imperil the fragile equilibrium of marine biological systems. The enduring effects could be permanent, affecting biodiversity and the livelihoods reliant upon it. Prompt measures are vital to prevent such systemic failures. This situation could lead to a collapse.

Government Incentives for Exporters

Authorities in Senegal provide monetary inducements to businesses that dispatch over eighty percent of their goods or offerings to international markets; these benefits encompass a fifty percent reduction in profit levies and a waiver on charges for incoming materials. Such regulations, while designed to increase exports, might unintentionally foster activities harmful to community food security and job prospects. The national administration offered no reply to requests for comments on these regulations or their effects. This absence of a reply intensifies existing worries.

Image Credit - The Guardian

From Fishmeal to Fish Farms

Upon the arrival of the fish-derived powder at Kılıç's nourishment processing facility, workers combine it with cereal grains, soy products, aquatic oils, and various other components. This mixture serves to nourish the vast quantities of marine life Kılıç gathers each year. A portion of this resulting seafood product journeys in a frozen state, transported via terrestrial routes or maritime vessels within 18-metric-ton shipping units, to harbors in the United Kingdom like Hull, Liverpool, Dover, and Portsmouth. This transport underscores the international logistics entailed in delivering cultivated aquatic products to consumers. The undertaking is demanding of energy and covers many thousands of miles.

Kılıç's Share of UK Imports

Information obtained from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) through a freedom of information submission indicates that Kılıç supplied one-fourth of all bass and bream shipments from Turkey entering the United Kingdom from 2021 through 2024. This considerable market portion highlights the company's significant involvement in the UK seafood provision. It also signifies that a large part of the sea bass and sea bream eaten in the UK is connected to the questionable fish-derived powder procurement.

Routes to UK Consumers: Billingsgate

Seafood cultivated by Kılıç, or its associated enterprise Agromey, reaches dining tables in the United Kingdom through two primary channels. The initial pathway involves distribution centers like the Billingsgate market in London. There, individuals clad in pale work attire congregate at first light amidst containers overflowing with gleaming sea bass and sea bream. The Guardian discovered that some of these containers bore the "Kılıç" identification. This historic market provides for a diverse clientele, thus further spreading these items.

Wholesaler Polydor's Volume

A merchant working for Polydor, a different wholesale distributor in the United Kingdom, informed the Guardian about transacting substantial volumes, approximately 100 metric tons weekly. This trader further explained that the product disseminates widely, reaching seafood retailers, dining establishments specializing in Chinese cuisine, and the general populace. Figures from Defra reveal that Polydor brought into the country in excess of 7,000 metric tons of sea bream sourced from Kılıç over the preceding four-year interval. This amount corresponds to upwards of 17 million complete aquatic creatures, or an estimated 78 million individual portions, demonstrating the immense scope of these imports.

Route Two: Wholesalers to Supermarkets

The alternative channel delivering these products to dining settings in the United Kingdom operates through wholesale distributors supplying grocery retailers. Data from Defra indicates that in 2024, New England Seafood International, an enterprise with premises in Chessington and Grimsby, along with Ocean Fish, located in Cornwall, facilitated the arrival of over five hundred thousand portions of sea bass, cultivated by Kılıç or its affiliate, onto supermarket display units. These recognized wholesalers function as crucial links in the elaborate network.

Opaque Supply Chains and Consumer Choice

Within a procurement network characterized by its lack of transparency and disjointed nature, shoppers possess no mechanism to ascertain if the sea bass or sea bream portion they acquire consumed fish-derived powder originating from Senegal during its cultivation. The absence of distinct labeling and product journey tracking thwarts knowledgeable consumer decisions. This obscurity benefits corporations that might prefer not to reveal the complete environmental and social consequences of their merchandise. It ultimately curtails the power of shoppers looking for sustainable selections.

Retailers Selling Kılıç-Produced Fish

The collaborative inquiry by Desmog and the Guardian confirmed that seafood originating from Kılıç's operations is available for purchase at Waitrose; this retailer identifies the Turkish enterprise among its purveyors. Furthermore, the Guardian has learned that Co-op markets approximately six metric tons of sea bass cultivated by Kılıç each year. Information on product containers, purveyor registers, and discussions with staff members from Kılıç and its associated firm, Agromey, indicate that Aldi, Lidl, and Asda also procured seafood from either Kılıç or Agromey. These discoveries create a direct line from several major UK retailers to the contentious supply system.

Supermarket Responses and Industry Statements

Upon receiving the inquiry's conclusions, Tesco, Lidl, Waitrose, and Sainsbury's chose not to provide remarks, instead directing the Guardian to an assertion by Sophie De Salis, who serves as a sustainability policy advisor for the British Retail Council. She communicated that retailers in the United Kingdom commit to acquiring seafood items with a sense of responsibility. De Salis also mentioned that their constituent members frequently assess angling methods within their procurement networks to guarantee adherence to the most stringent benchmarks. Retailers, she added, also follow legal labeling rules and maintain quality through independent checks.

Other Retailer Positions

Aldi and Morrisons indicated they presently do not procure from the aquaculture operations of Kılıç or Agromey, yet they refrained from disclosing if such procurement occurred previously. Aldi additionally mentioned that, commencing the prior year, it ceased obtaining supplies from the wholesale distributors identified in the report. Subsequent to the report's release, M&S informed the Guardian it had at no time acquired products from Kılıç, nor had it ever utilized marine life from Senegal as sustenance for its sea bass or sea bream. Asda provided no answer to inquiries for their input.

Image Credit - The Guardian

Wholesalers and Senegalese Factories Respond

Among the wholesale distributors implicated in the network, New England Seafood International conveyed its dedication to procuring aquatic products in a responsible and sustainable manner. Ocean Fish and Polydor, the remaining two, offered no reply to requests for statements. Afric Azote, a facility in Dakar under Senegalese proprietorship, refuted any involvement in depleting fish stocks or causing joblessness among females; the company asserted it exclusively processed entire, newly caught marine life only when such items became unsuitable for direct human dietary use. Africa Feed and Omega Fishing, the additional plants in Senegal, likewise did not answer inquiries.

Certification Standards Under Scrutiny

Aquatic products nourished using diminutive marine life from western Africa may receive designations like "responsibly" acquired or cultivated, provided these products satisfy criteria established by the ASC. According to ASC regulations, an aquaculture facility may only procure fish-derived powder from origins where fishing operations achieve what the ASC terms "reasonable management" and sustain robust populations. This criterion is markedly different from the conditions in Senegal's severely overfished marine areas. The EU gave Senegal a formal warning for its failure to address illicit, unrecorded, and unregulated fishing activities.

Kılıç and ASC Standards

Kılıç, an enterprise that generates one-fourth of its sea bass and sea bream output from four aquaculture sites accredited by the ASC, declared it did not infringe upon ASC benchmarks. The ASC stated that Kılıç did not register Senegal as a nation for procuring whole aquatic marine components in 2024. Nevertheless, the council indicated that Kılıç's acquisition of such marine life might not contravene its regulations if Kılıç's processors incorporated these items into animal nourishment. The ASC elaborated that Kılıç could blend these marine species into feed, conditional upon the overall composition of substances satisfying its stipulated criteria. This possible exception casts doubt on the certification's strength.

Calls to Source Ingredients Elsewhere

Diaba Diop, who leads a country-wide coalition of female seafood laborers in Senegal, asserts that international corporations ought to obtain their constituent materials from alternative locations. She issued a warning, stating the ocean will transform into an aquatic wasteland. Diop further opined that when individuals face insufficient sustenance, communities cannot allocate such resources towards nourishing livestock or other creatures. Her views mirror an increasing dissatisfaction among local populations observing their main protein supply being redirected.

Migration and Lost Hope

Abdou Karim Sall, who directs the anglers' association in Joal-Fadiouth, observes the settlement depopulating much like the adjacent waters. He notes that young males, perceiving a lack of prospects within their nation, undertake the hazardous 1,500-kilometer maritime passage to the Canary Islands. This dangerous voyage resulted in over ten thousand fatalities during the preceding year. Karim Sall stated with conviction that the absence of seafood equates to an absence of optimism. He firmly believes the aquatic bounty ought to have remained within Senegal's territory, bolstering local livelihoods and futures.

Environmental Consequences of Fishmeal Production

The fish-derived powder industry significantly contributes to environmental decline, extending beyond the depletion of aquatic populations. Manufacturing plants frequently generate air and water contamination, affecting the health and welfare of adjacent communities. Information suggests that unprocessed effluent is occasionally discharged into coastal marine areas, harming aquatic ecosystems and traditional local fishing grounds. The unpleasant smells from certain facilities have reportedly damaged local tourism, another income stream for seaside regions. These ecological pressures weigh heavily on communities already contending with scarce resources.

The Challenge of Overexploited Stocks

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has consistently drawn attention to the vulnerable condition of numerous West African fish stocks, including sardinella, a primary species sought by the fish-derived powder sector. These populations are frequently shared among nations, making management strategies more complex. The severe fishing intensity to provide for fish-derived powder plants directly clashes with the requirements of millions of individuals in the area for whom these aquatic species are a dietary foundation. This rivalry increases local aquatic product prices, rendering them too costly for many.

Socio-Economic Fallout and Gender Impacts

The reduced availability of fish has a greater negative effect on women, who have historically been central to fish processing and local sales in West Africa. As their means of earning a living diminish, so too does their financial autonomy and capacity to provide for their families. This change can lead to significant societal shifts, transforming community dynamics and heightening vulnerability. Some information also points to the danger of child exploitation within the wider fishing industry of the area, an issue made worse by financial hardship.

Image Credit - The Guardian

International Calls for Action and Policy Shifts

Advocacy organizations and global entities have urged more stringent controls on the fish-derived powder sector and improved upholding of current legislation. There are requests for increased openness in procurement networks and for corporations to perform comprehensive checks regarding human rights and ecological effects. Certain groups encourage the European Union, a significant consumer of West African fish-derived powder and aquatic oil (both directly and indirectly through cultivated aquatic product imports), to limit goods from areas with depleted aquatic populations and nourishment scarcity. The emphasis is moving towards giving precedence to aquatic products for human dietary needs within West Africa.

The Future of Sustainable Aquaculture Feed

The aquaculture sector is experiencing mounting demands to discover more environmentally sound feed components. Investigation into substitutes for fish-derived powder, like feeds based on algae, insect-derived protein, or microbial substances, is in progress. Nevertheless, the extensive implementation of these options still encounters financial and technical hurdles. For a sector that increasingly contributes to the worldwide seafood provision, tackling the environmental soundness of its feed origins is crucial. Lacking this transformation, the difficulties observed in West Africa might be repeated in other locations.

A Crisis Demanding Global Attention

The circumstances in Senegal and the wider West African area act as a serious caution. It demonstrates how interconnected worldwide food networks can produce remote yet profoundly damaging effects. The quest for reasonably priced seafood in affluent countries, if not managed with accountability, can weaken nourishment security, obliterate livelihoods, and impair marine biological systems many thousands of miles distant. Tackling this complex emergency necessitates unified actions from national authorities, industrial participants, accrediting organizations, and shoppers to guarantee genuinely sustainable and fair seafood generation. The appeal for transformation from affected populations intensifies each day.