This is an assessment of the socio-economic benefits of Sea Harvest, one of South Africa’s largest fishing companies focused on deep-sea hake fishing. The purpose of the assessment is to provide the company and its stakeholders with an overview of the diverse social and economic benefits of the company, in order for these impacts to be considered more explicitly in strategy and decision making.
The focus is on the company’s impacts on social and economic systems in the Saldanha Bay Municipality – the site of the company’s main operations – and the West Coast District. Some consideration is also given to the company’s broader socio-economic impacts at national level, bearing in mind that Sea Harvest is one of only two South African companies that currently have sufficient capacity and economies of scale to develop value-added products competitively for the international market.

The assessment is based on a review of relevant published and unpublished literature, information obtained directly from Sea Harvest, and interviews with representatives of Sea Harvest, labour unions, and a range of other informants in local government, the private sector, and civil society in Saldanha.