Selling Access, Not Value
Why Somalia’s fish leaves the country unprocessed
Maritime Brief No. 01 | August 2026
Somalia has one of Africa’s longest coastlines and a highly productive marine resource base, yet much of the value generated by its fisheries is still captured outside the country.
In its first Maritime Brief, OPONE examines the structural constraints keeping Somalia’s fisheries at the lower end of the value chain—from limited cold-chain infrastructure and the absence of a recognized seafood sanitary authority to weak catch verification and the way foreign fishing access is currently structured.
The brief argues that Somalia’s challenge is not simply a lack of fish or investment. It is a value-capture problem: the country needs the institutional and physical infrastructure to prove quality, preserve value and connect Somali fisheries to higher-value markets.
It proposes a practical sequence of reforms: establish a national Competent Authority, concentrate cold-chain investment at designated landing sites, strengthen catch monitoring and traceability, and re-condition foreign fishing access around landing, monitoring and observer requirements.
Somalia can keep selling access to its ocean, or it can start selling what its ocean produces.
📄 Read the full Maritime Brief
Selling Access, Not Value
OPONE — Where Ocean Meets Opportunity
