Aquaculture continues to increase its importance to Africa’s economies in a number of ways - in providing sustainable and nutritious food to the continent’s fast-growing populations, to jobs and improved livelihoods.

The WAS initiated the annual Aquaculture Africa Conferences (AFRAQs) which have been a great success, starting in Egypt (2022) and in Zambia (2023). These annual meetings brought together a wide variety of aquaculturists from the commercial, academic, government sectors and NGO sectors to celebrate the sector’s achievements, but also to find solutions to some of the challenges the sector faces. Tunisia will host the 3rd Aquaculture Africa Conference (AFRAQ24) on 19-22 November 2024, at its majestic city of Hammamet – a popular holiday destination on the Mediterranean coastline.

Tunisia is currently amongst Africa’s top aquaculture producing countries and also one of the world’s fastest average annual growth rate. The country is the second biggest aquaculture producer country in North Africa region, after Egypt and is looking forward to expand the sector owing to the competitive advantages on its blue economy domain.

In addition to appraising Tunisia’s fast-growing aquaculture sector, bringing AFRAQ24 to the country is expected to inspire the African French and Arabic communities. It is expected to be a gateway platform to connect Africa to European aquaculture actors.