Title: An economic assessment of the postharvest losses in Seychelles’ industrial sector.

Seychelles’ fisheries sector is a crucial “second pillar” of the economy and vital for social and economic development. It ensures national food security and is a key cultural identity. However, foreign industrial purse seiners and longliners dominate tuna fishing in Seychelles waters and the Indian Ocean. The country’s EEZ, strategically positioned in the West Indian Ocean, serves as a vital tuna migration route and a key landing and transhipment hub. At least 90% of the purse seiner catch in the region is landed in Port Victoria annually. Strict bycatch landing rules are set by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, yet local processors raise concerns about the volume of bycatch received from these purse seiners. The bycatch ratio of purse seiners in the West Indian Ocean is estimated at around 4%. This is equivalent to 13 thousand Mt of bycatch landed by purse seiners in Port Victoria in 2020. In contrast, the total exported bycatch from processors in Seychelles in 2020 was 2.8 thousand Mt. That was only 21% of the estimated bycatch for that same year. The results show that the country could have benefited from increased revenue in the range of 8.2 million USD to 28.5 million USD for that year. This corresponds between 0.73% to 2.55% of GDP, respectively. A second scenario was considered where the estimated bycatch landed and transhipped by purse seiners was 2% of the total catch. The results still show a relatively high value between USD 4.1 million and USD 14.3 million. If the longliners fishing in Seychelles EEZ were obligated to land in Port Victoria, its economy would have benefited with an extra 957 thousand USD to 3.3 million USD in 2020.