How a US$110 million fishing harbour in Tanzania serves China’s food and security goals
Kilwa Masoko port promises local jobs while feeding Beijing’s long-term strategy for maritime power and seafood supply chains
Designed to land 60,000 tonnes of fish a year, it aims to boost Tanzanian fish markets, cut spoilage and create jobs – Tanzania’s labour minister Deus Sangu expects about 30,000 direct and indirect jobs.
China imports live lobster from Namibia and Comoros, and crab and dried anchovies from Kenya. It agreed to import requirements for Tanzanian wild aquatic products, while a separate protocol provides for Somali tuna, lobster and other wild seafood to enter the Chinese market.
Kilwa Masoko is part of a wider push to build fishing infrastructure across Africa with mutual benefits, with African governments offered more locally landed fish, less seafood wastage and more jobs in processing.
Meanwhile, for China such ports can help secure seafood supplies and support fishing vessels operating far from home, according to Miren Gutierrez, a principal investigator in communication studies at Spain’s University of Deusto and a research associate at the London-based ODI Global think tank.
“China’s backing and construction of overseas fishing ports in Africa is not a series of isolated commercial projects,” she said.
“Rather, it represents the culmination of a decades-long strategic trajectory that integrates food security, industrial expansion, diplomatic leverage and geostrategic maritime presence.”
China’s distant-water fishing industry began operating in West Africa in 1985 when the state-owned China National Fisheries Corporation sent its first fleet there, Gutierrez said.
Beijing’s “Go Global” policy, which was introduced in 2000, encouraged companies to expand overseas, supported by subsidies for fuel, vessels and processing facilities.
More recently, the Maritime Silk Road had placed fishing and overseas bases within a broader strategy to build maritime power and link China to global supply chains, Gutierrez said.
Chinese vessels fish in Somali waters after an earlier agreement saw Somalia license 31 Chinese longline vessels to catch tuna and related species.
And China is funding and building fishing ports across Africa. In Ghana, a Chinese-built port at Jamestown in Accra was commissioned in 2024 with a US$60 million grant. Similarly, in Guinea-Bissau, China provided about US$25 million for the second phase of Alto do Bandim port in Bissau, handed over in May 2023.
China’s expanding fishing presence in Africa has drawn scrutiny. In parts of West Africa, Chinese fleets have faced accusations of depleting fish stocks and fishing illegally.
For fleets operating thousands of miles from China, overseas bases or ports can provide places to refuel, resupply, repair vessels and offload catches.
“Dedicated fishing ports provide the landing, cold storage and processing infrastructure needed to turn raw catch into stable supply chains for Chinese cities or re-export markets,” Gutierrez said.
Where Chinese companies controlled both vessels and facilities ashore, they could reduce costs while gaining greater control over landings, she argued.
“By controlling both the vessels and the shore facilities, Chinese companies reduce delays and shield offloaded catches from close oversight.”