Government generated about N$110.1 million from auctioning of Hake in December 2022, an exercise that showed improved prices.
The amount was from the sale of 12,300 metric tonnes, out of a total of 15,000 metric tonnes that was lined up for grabs in its third sale of fishing quotas last year.
2,700 remains unallocated.
“The amount is inclusive of N$10,000 raised from application fees. The Ministry of Finance & Public Enterprises and Fisheries & Marine Resources consider the Hake auction a success, as shown in improved prices from the reserve price of N$7,000 to an average of N$8,592.55 for Wet Hake and N$9,000 to N$10,207.41 for Freezer Hake,” said the Ministry of Finance Public Relations Officer Wilson Shikoto.
“Such an outcome confirms that auctioning remains a good mechanism to facilitate price discovery in the sector and allocate natural resources to the market.”
The latest auction results comes as the government raised N$567 million in total from Governmental Objective Fish Quota auctions of 2021, where six auctions were held with 86,040 metric tonnes auctioned off.
Government in 2020 resolved to sell the fish quota through a competitive auction system to the highest bidder, as part of efforts to ensure that the country receives the correct value of its fishery resources and fully benefits from its natural resources.
The auctions are being held inline with Section 3(3) of the Marine Resources Act, Act No. 17 of 2000 as amended, which makes provision for the State to utilise or harvest marine resources to advance any social-economic, cultural or other governmental objectives in the public interest, through an entity or person designated by the Minister, on direction from Cabinet.
