Our vision is to drive social and environmental change in small scale fishing communities in Africa. And beyond.
ABALOBI Fisheries, founded in 2017, is a non-profit social enterprise working with small-scale fisheries. By developing technology (like specialised apps and cloud-based platforms), ABALOBI enables fishermen to accurately log and monitor their fishing activity. These solutions also enable consumers interested in purchasing ethical and fully traceable local fish to access a digital marketplace. This way the fishermen out at sea, and the consumers on land, are always connected.
Ethical and traceable seafood
“Our partners are twofold. There are those responsible for the fishing, who connect to the marketplace via our co-designed app. The second group of partners are the consumers – these are chefs, home cooks and retailers,” explains Dr Serge Raemaekers, founding MD. “By using our app, we’re able to cut out the middleman, which means these fishermen and women can sell their goods at a fair price. The consumers of these products are guaranteed fresh, fully traceable and local seafood.”
The whole process is 100% transparent. Consumers see where and when their fish was caught, by whom and how much the fishermen get paid for it.
Fishing with a difference
ABALOBI is an important movement – it ensures that fishing communities are protected and so are the end consumers. Fishermen receive fair, transparent income and consumers a fully traceable ‘Fish With A Story’.
“ABALOBI is the first of its kind. The in-app marketplace is not a ‘seafood emporium’ and buyers won’t always get exactly what they want. The platform acts instead as a window into the fishing community – you get what you get – when the sea conditions allow, and the ‘fish are biting’, says Dr Raemaekers. “We hope this will change the way people consume fish,” he adds.
Consumers are part of the journey
“This makes for an exciting journey for the consumer! They’re automatically part of the entire fishing story. Before they’re even aware, they will actively start to change the way they think about consuming fish.”
A consistent partner on land
“We use xneelo to host a few of our websites, each of which serve a slightly different purpose. There is abalobi.org that talks to our overall mission, fishwithastory.org, which is a hub of content for inspiring chefs and home cooks, and codingforcrayfish.org which follows the story of David Shoshola, a traditional fisherman taking unprecedented steps to address the crisis in the West Coast Rock Lobster fishing industry.”
“We chose xneelo because of their reputable service and the fact that they’re based in South Africa, like us. We’re always pleased with the consistent service we receive.”
