An incomes and costs study of the Egyptian purse seine fishery operated in the Gulf of Suez and off the southern Red Sea coast during 1980-81

Abstract

This report describes the incomes and costs of the Egyptian purse seine fleet operated in the Gulf of Suez and off the southern Red Sea coast during 1980-81. The principal data sources were the official statistics of daily landings, interviews with marketing agents in respect to obtaining prices, and interviews with boat owners and/or skippers for obtaining the costs. Some aspects of the current management regime were discussed. The practice of requiring some 10% of the landings at the principal landing site to be marketed at Suez, rather than in Cairo where higher prices are obtained, was shown to represent a subsidy to the population in Suez of about 3% of the gross income. A comparison of the economic performances of the boats operated in the Gulf which were managed under a regime of license limitation with the performance of the boats operated in the unlimited 'outside' the Gulf part of the fishery, indicated that the latter boats were performing marginally better. Another aspect o f management discussed was the labour cost savings that could result from the introduction of power block for hauling the nets.