Statistics Mauritius has just published some interesting about agriculture and fish production from January 2022 to June 2022. This issue of the Economic and Social Indicators presents data on agricultural and fish production for the Island of Mauritius for the first six months of 2022, as well as revised figures for year 2021.
Total fish production went down by 14.7% from 14,132 tonnes in the first six months of 2021 to 12,048 tonnes in the same period of 2022. This decrease was attributable to a drop of 16.8% in the production of other catch (tuna, bank etc) from 13,625 tonnes in 2021 to 11,336 tonnes in 2022, partly offset by an increase of 40.4% in the production of fresh coastal fish catch from 507 tonnes in the first semester of 2021 to 712 tonnes during the same period of 2022.
Data on production of beef, goat meat, mutton and pork are supplied by Mauritius Meat Authority. It is to be noted that these data represent only animals slaughtered by the Central Abattoir, including live animals imported from Rodrigues and other countries for slaughter.
During the first half of 2022, the production of beef from live cattle was 1,134 tonnes, as compared to 1,040 tonnes registered in the corresponding period of 2021. Beef production from the slaughter of imported cattle, accounting for 96.3% of the total production, increased by 5.7% from 1,033 tonnes to 1,092 tonnes. Local beef production went up from 7 tonnes to 42 tonnes.
The production of goat meat and mutton increased by 4.5% from 22 tonnes during the first semester of 2021 to 23 tonnes for the same period of 2022. The share of local production, inclusive of Rodrigues, stood at 73.9%.
The production of pork went up by 48.4% from 246 tonnes in the first semester of 2021 to 365 tonnes during the same period of 2022.
The production of poultry increased by 18.7% from 22,500 tonnes in the first semester of 2021 to 26,700 tonnes during the same period of 2022.
At the end of June 2022, some 326 hectares under sugar cane were harvested, yielding 24,141 tonnes of sugar cane and 2,117 tonnes of sugar. The corresponding figures for the same period in 2021 were 511 hectares, 38,081 tonnes of sugar cane and 4,401 tonnes of sugar respectively. The average extraction rate as at end of June 2022 was 7.34%, lower than the 7.80% as at end of June 2021.
According to Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture, production of sugar for the crop year 2022 will be around 240,000 tonnes, representing a decrease of 6.2%, compared to 255,818 tonnes in 2021.
At the end of June 2022, area under tea plantation was 669 hectares, representing a decrease of 2.3% over the figure of 685 hectares during the same period of 2021. However, the production of green tea leaves went up by 22.8%: 3,506 tonnes in first semester of 2022 as compared to 2,855 tonnes during the same period of 2021.
The area harvested under food crops for open fields decreased by 3.4% from 3,281 hectares in the first semester of 2021 to 3,170 hectares in the same period of 2022. The production of food crops decreased by 8.2% from 37,768 tonnes to 34,665 tonnes during the same period, mainly explained by unfavourable climatic conditions
The total area harvested under food crops decreased by 2.9% from 3,307 hectares in the first semester of 2021 to 3,212 hectares in the same period of 2022. The total production of food crops went down by 2.4% from 40,788 tonnes to 39,792 tonnes during the same period.
