THE EASTERN CAPE DEVELOPMENT Corporation (ECDC) has teamed up with a Swiss-based investment company to investigate the potential of an eel farming industry in the province. Eel farming and processing has the potential of developing into a R50-million a year industry, providing employment for more than six thousand people, according to Jeremy Lewis of Unagi International. Unagi has budgeted around five million US dollars for a three-year research project into the viability of the industry. The research, which focuses on the anguillid eel species that is found in Southern Africa, extends to Mozambique and Madagascar because of the migratory nature of the eels. Little is known about this species, which breeds and hatches off Madagascar and then makes its way up Southern African rivers to mature. The study will establish the sustainable harvesting potential of the species. It will include a full habitat assessment that will also look at boosting eel populations by building fish ladders on dam walls which have blocked the natural up-stream migration paths of the elvers. Conservation controls and guidelines will have to be put in place in order to protect and manage the exploitation of this indigenous fish species. At the same time the potential for adding value through processing plants will be evaluated. The target for the processed eel will be both the European and Asian markets. The focus will be on creating rural employment. “The development of locally-operated co-operatives is an integral part of the Unagi International investment initiative, and s based on the plan of action for rural development programme that has been developed by the World Bank, and that is presently being employed in Madagascar,” he says. If it is viable, the project is expected to take up to ten years to reach full production.