From Business Day Live.

Red tape has hampered efforts to establish mussel and oyster farms that could potentially provide jobs for thousands of people in South Africa’s Saldanha Bay, according to a report in Business Day Live.

Research from the University of Stellenbosch shows that aquaculture in the bay’s waters could provide jobs in an area where population growth and unemployment far exceed South Africa’s national average, the report says.

Issues cited in the report that hinder economic development in the region include incomplete implementation of financial support policies, slow processing of mandatory product safety sampling, poor facilitation of access to global markets and “injuriously high” water lease fees levied by the local harbor.

Saldanha’s population grew 29 percent between 2001 and 2010. Unemployment in South Africa averages 25 percent.

Saldanha’s natural environment is “exceptionally conducive to the rapid growth and superior quality of bivalves (mussels and oysters)” because the bay forms part of the Benguela Large Marine Ecosystem that provides nutrient-rich waters, sociology masters student David Olivier was quoted as saying in the report.

Two-thirds of the South Africa’s aquaculture is in the Western Cape. It is a labor-intensive sector with demand for low-skilled labor, the research found.

Read more at Business Day Live.