Somalia's fisheries: vessels, processing and landing sites

Where Xidig members may contribute

These are skills, service and collaboration opportunities: plausible needs, not confirmed contracts or jobs.

• Skills: refrigeration and ice-plant maintenance, solar power for cold chain, marine engine repair, safe handling and hygiene, and boat building and repair.
• Service: food-safety and export-standards advice, cold-chain logistics, and small-business support for fish traders.
• Collaboration: cooperatives. The vessel proposal includes "establishing cooperatives", and BADMAAL names "cooperatives and MSMEs" as main beneficiaries. Members with cooperative or microfinance experience could help groups organise.
• Research: better catch and price data. The official figures disagree.

Possible services, research, supplier or collaboration roles

• Supplying and servicing ice machines, cold rooms and solar systems for landing sites. Validate demand with operators first.
• Hygiene and quality training for fish handlers.
• Community consultation support for new landing sites. BADMAAL's appraisal warns that a new Mogadishu site "will imply a drastic change for fishers, processors and consumers".
• Independent monitoring of catch and prices.

Who may find this useful

• Fishers, fish traders and processors in coastal towns.
• Refrigeration, electrical and marine technicians.
• Food scientists and quality specialists, including those in the diaspora.
• Cooperative organisers and NGO staff.
• Students in marine science and fisheries.

Somalia's fisheries today, and what is already being built

A large coast, a small domestic catch.

• Coastline: the government's proposals cite a 3,330 km coastline. The World Bank's BADMAAL documents use "approximately 3,333 kilometers". In August 2026 President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said the coastline is "more than 3,800 kilometres".
• Current catch: estimates vary widely. The World Bank's 2024 project documents put domestic catch at 30,000–50,000 tonnes a year, with foreign fleets catching around 100,000 tonnes. FAO's Somalia office cites 25,000–30,000 tonnes.
• Potential: estimates of the sustainable catch vary widely. The World Bank's BADMAAL appraisal gives a range of about 600,000–835,000 tonnes a year. FAO's Somalia office cites an "estimated potential of about 800,000 MT". The US International Trade Administration, quoted in the project's environmental framework, gives a lower figure: the country "could harvest well over 200,000 metric tons of fish per year". Each should be quoted with its source.

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Reported capture production (FAO via World Bank) has been close to 100,000 tonnes a year since 2017. That figure appears to include more than domestic small-scale catch, so compare it with other estimates carefully.

What limits the sector. The World Bank's 2024 appraisal says the domestic sector is "largely small-scale and primarily using gillnets, handlines and traps". It adds that value chains are "limited by poor landing infrastructure, handling and processing facilities and equipment". Its project information document estimates post-harvest losses at "between 25% and 40%", and it counts "approximately 122 fish landing sites" along the coast.

Illegal fishing and licences. The same appraisal estimates the value of illegally caught fish at "between US$100 and US$450 million annually". Licences issued to about 30 Chinese longliners generate "approximately US$4 million in annual revenue".

Existing and parallel investment.

• BADMAAL (World Bank, Somali Sustainable Fisheries and Blue Economy Development Project). It has US$50M of IDA grant money plus US$5M from PROBLUE, was approved in June 2024 and closes in 2030. It is building small-scale fishing infrastructure "at a minimum of 12 sites", including "cold stores… ice-production facilities, storage facilities, as well as processing facilities". The sites include Kismayo (Calanley and Kibora), Barawe, Marka, Hobyo, Garacad and Mogadishu. By April 2025 feasibility studies were done for two sites and design was under way for six more.
• Mogadishu: FAO and Japan are renovating the Lido fish market, with better "hygiene, storage, refrigeration, and handling" (FAO, 2025).
• Kismayo: a German-funded project (GIZ, 2016–2022) planned a new fish market at Calanley (spelled Alanley in the source). The source does not confirm it was built.
• Turkey: in March 2026 SONNA reported a joint fisheries company, Somtürk, between the Somali Fisheries Company and Turkey's OYAK Group. In August 2026 the fisheries ministry discussed training support with Turkey's aid agency TIKA.

None of these sources mention the government's four proposals. Readers should not assume they are the same projects.

Geographic context

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Sites named in the fisheries-related proposals. Mogadishu and Kismayo appear in two proposals each.

Seven places are named across three proposals (nine site mentions); the vessel proposal is national. Mogadishu and Kismayo each appear twice. Several overlap with BADMAAL's sites: Kismayo, Marka, Garacad and Mogadishu. Xidig found no current fisheries-infrastructure information for Adale. For Laasqoray, the only source found is a 2005 FAO profile noting a rehabilitated canning factory. Laasqoray lies in an area where administration is contested; this report takes no position on it.

Dependencies and implementation constraints

• Energy and water for cold chain. The processing-hub sheet itself lists "reliable energy" and "clean water" as services the hubs would need to provide.
• Land: BADMAAL's appraisal notes "limited land availability" at Mogadishu's two traditional landing sites, Hamarweyne and Lido.
• Coordination: two ministries propose landing infrastructure: Fisheries and Blue Economy (fishing ports, FI-03) and Public Works (fishing jetties, LI-04); see More about the source. BADMAAL and FAO also work at some of the same sites.
• Market access: export requires certification and a functioning cold chain from landing to shipping.
• Finance and partners: none named. The fishing-ports sheet's "confidential discussions" cannot be verified.

Risks and unknowns

• Possible duplication: the fishing-ports (FI-03) and fishing-jetties (LI-04) proposals are both US$20.7M, with different sites and ministries.
• Unsourced targets: 4,762 jobs, 28,441 MT of extra catch, 6,500 MT, US$31M and 40% export (see More about the source).
• Sustainability: adding catch capacity (LI-04 cites "15,000 tonnes of fishing capacity") without stock assessments could risk over-fishing. Estimates of the sustainable catch vary widely.

Questions members should verify before acting

1. Are FI-03 and LI-04 separate projects, or two versions of one budget?
2. How do the government's sites relate to BADMAAL's 12 sites? Is the ministry coordinating them?
3. Is there a stock assessment behind the extra-catch targets?
4. Who would own and operate the processing hubs, and on what terms?
5. Is there any current procurement? Check the Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy and the World Bank project page.

What is confirmed, and what isn't

Confirmed

• The four proposals, their printed costs, sites and pre-feasibility status.
• The BADMAAL project, its funding, sites and April 2025 progress, from World Bank documents.
• FAO–Japan work at the Lido market.
• Post-harvest loss and illegal-catch estimates, as World Bank figures.

Our interpretation

• Cold chain and handling skills are the most practical member roles.
• Duplication between FI-03 and LI-04 is possible, not established.

Not yet verified

• All job and output figures on the sheets.
• The "confidential discussions".
• Sustainable yield (sources disagree).
• The coastline length (three figures in circulation).
• Current conditions at Adale and Laasqoray.

Relevant next steps

• Follow the BADMAAL project page and the Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy for site-level procurement.
• Coastal members: share what exists at your landing site (ice, storage, power) through Xidig, to help later reports.
• Technicians: consider cold-chain and solar refrigeration training.