Namibia: Price of Fuel Has Seesaw Effect On Fishing Industry

The price of diesels has a seesaw effect on the fishing industry, managing director of Hangana Fisheries, Hendrick van der Westhuizen told the Economist this week.

The fishing industry uses a lot of diesel on its fishing vessels, which spend a lot of days at sea.

Van der Westhuizen said because of the volumes of the diesel used by the companies, an increase say of N$1, leads to an increase in the fuel budget of as much as N$1 million or more.
“The same can be said, when the price of fuel comes down, you can save as much money,” he said. The problem though is that the price has more of an upward spiral than a downward one.

The other problem for the industry is that normally, an increase in the price of fuel leads to an increase in the cost of goods needed to service the industry.

In the case of Hangana, fuel expenses accounts for 60% of the company’s expenditure. At the moment, diesel costs N$6-50 per litre at Walvis Bay.

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