Rural communities, the environment and tourism are set to benefit from an eel farming venture that has been pioneered in partnership with the East Cape Development Corporation (ECDC). In 2003 alone, R31,8-million will be invested in the King William’s Town and Umtata areas in a project that will create hundreds of jobs in the former Transkei and Ciskei. “For the first time, I believe we have identified an indigenous sustainable resource,” says Jeremy Lewis, managing director of Unagi International, which is managing the project. The project is the result of a partnership between the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC), Unagi International PLC and black empowerment company, SA Eels (Pty) Ltd. “The eels will be farmed all along the river systems in the Eastern Cape. This is a first in making aquaculture deliverable to the people,” he says. The project will use the anguillid eel species that is found in Southern Africa. The ECDC investment promotion unit's Pierre Leppan said an important principle was that the juvenile eels which would be caught as they migrated up the rivers will not be exported to fish farms in the East as happens with stock caught elsewhere in the world, but will be raised in South Africa. The ECDC has helped fund the project, which has also led to the revival of disused facilities in order to house the young eels. “Eel ranching” has proved successful in New Zealand, Australia and Europe, says Lewis. Eels will be reintroduced to rivers in the province and then caught one to two years later for export live or to be processed in Kabayaki ovens for the Japanese market. Local residents will be given stretches of river to manage and farm. It is estimated that the region could produce around 5 000 tons of eel meat a year. One of the immediate benefits will be to the environment, as rivers will have to be cleaned up in order to protect the eels. “Once there is a value to the environment, things will start happening. When locals see a return on having clean rivers, they will start doing something about it,” says Lewis. Other local species of fish are expected to make a comeback as fish ladders are built along the rivers to allow the eels to migrate. These ladders can also be used by other species. Another sector to benefit will be tourism. Cleaner and healthier rivers with healthy populations of fish will help attract tourists to the rural areas. Special eel traps and nets are used to harvest the eels, in order to protect the other fish and crustations in the rivers. All catches will be carefully monitored and eels removed from the rivers will be replaced by juveniles. Les Ter Morshuizen, formerly from Rhodes University's ichthyology department, has been appointed as Director in charge of the South African operation and the head office has been located at Pirie in the Eastern Cape. Two aquaculture centres are being developed at Pirie and at Umtata. The processing plant will be located in Pirie. The Eastern Cape project is a joint venture with Danish Partners, Royal Danish Seafood and Billund Aquakultur. Total investment planned for this year is R31,8-million. This includes the development of land and buildings (R4-million), the roll-out of farming co-operatives (R4,8-million), the establishment of the R20 million processing plant and R3-million for research. “On the Research front we have established the Anguillid Research Institute (ARI) which will be responsible for the management and implementation of our research programme,” he says. The project will create 20 jobs at each aquaculture site, 240 people in the co-operatives, about 30 research posts in the field and 100 people with permanent jobs in the processing plant. The processing plant has a production capacity of approx 300 kg per hour or three tons per day of Kabayaki product. This “translates to an income stream of approximately R2 million per month once fully operational,” says Lewis. The plant is due to be opened by November this year. "The market for processed and live eels is huge," says Morshuizen. China, which was a major producer of eel meat, was rapidly losing its market share because of the polluted state of its rivers, and this has opened up opportunities through the Southern African region.