CFE currently owns 11.85% in the MFV “Penkop II”, which is used to harvest its allocation together with a few smaller right holders’ allocations.
The fish is caught and processed on the vessel and value added on land at various fish processing facilities for the export market. The fish that is not approved for the export market is sold to the local buyers for further value adding.
Historical Involvement:
CFE historically wholly owned and managed their longline vessel the MFV “Shian Feng Chang no. 18” (SFC18). The MFV “SFC18” operated as CFE’s catching vessel in both the Hake Longline and the Large Pelagic Longline sectors. CFE operated this vessel for the period 1992-2010, where it was skippered by one of CFE’s shareholders and directors, Mr Basil Lucas who, after 50 years of working as an active fisherman, has now retired as a skipper and continues to share his valuable experiences on the Board of CFE.
Owing to the reduction of TAC’s, together with the high running costs of the vessel and a catastrophic main engine breakdown on CFE’s biggest vessel, the MFV “Exel”, which was CFE’s Hake Deep Sea Trawl Vessel, CFE was forced to sell this vessel. Because the CFE Hake Longline allocation was insufficient to warrant purchasing a vessel for its harvesting needs alone, CFE sought to join an existing vessel joint venture that attracted right holders with smaller allocations in an attempt to benefit from economies of scale. This approach was adopted by the majority of Hake Longline right holders due to the size of allocations, the erosion of the TAC and demise of the value of the European export market.
From 2011 CFE entered a joint venture agreement with GF Products Trading (Proprietary) Limited. This joint venture continued from 2011-2017. CFE was promised the acquisition of shares in the catching vessel the MFV “Jacqueline”. This promise of acquisition of shares was based on continued participation in the joint venture, however the owner of the MFV “Jacqueline” reneged on its undertakings in this regard, which forced CFE to pursue new options.
In 2018, CFE commenced talks with ICV Africa (Pty) Ltd, which facilitated investment in the MFV “Bella Da Lunar”. Negotiations with the owners of the MFV “Bella Da lunar” were in final stages when the vessel owners pulled out of the deal at the of end 2019. CFE’s intended equity interest in the vessel was scrapped.
