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Comoros Agriculture, Livestock, and Fishing
Agriculture supported about 80 percent of the
population and
supplied about 95 percent of exports in the early 1990s.
Two
agricultural zones are generally defined: the coastal
area, which
ranges in elevation from sea level to 400 meters and which
supports cash crops such as vanilla, ylang-ylang, and
cloves; and
the highlands, which support cultivation of crops for
domestic
consumption, such as cassava, bananas, rain rice, and
sweet
potatoes. As the population increased, food grown for
domestic
use met fewer and fewer of Comorans' needs. Data collected
by the
World Bank showed that food production per capita fell
about 12
percent from 1980 to 1987. The republic imported virtually
all
its meat and vegetables; rice imports alone often
accounted for
up to 30 percent of the value of all imports.
Comoros is the world's principal producer of
ylang-ylang
essence, an essence derived from the flowers of a tree
originally
brought from Indonesia that is used in manufacturing
perfumes and
soaps. Ylang-ylang essence is a major component of Chanel
No. 5,
the popular scent for women. The republic is the world's
second
largest producer of vanilla, after Madagascar. Cloves are
also an
important cash crop. A total of 237 tons of vanilla was
exported
in 1991, at a price of about CF19 per kilogram. A total of
2,750
tons of cloves was exported in 1991, at a price of CF397
per
kilogram. That year forty-three tons of ylang-ylang
essence were
exported at a price of about CF23,000 per kilogram. The
production of all three commodities fluctuates wildly,
mainly in
response to changes in global demand and natural disasters
such
as cyclones. Profits--and therefore, government receipts--
likewise skyrocket and plummet, wreaking havoc with
government
efforts to predict revenues and plan expenditures.
Stabex
(Stabilization of Export Earnings--see Glossary), a system
of the
EC, provides aid to Comoros and other developing countries
to
mitigate the effects of fluctuations in the prices of
export
commodities.
Long-term prospects for the growth and stabilization of
the
markets for vanilla and ylang-ylang did not appear strong
in the
early 1990s. Vanilla faced increased competition from
synthetic
flavorings, and the preferences of perfume users were
moving away
from the sweet fragrance provided by ylang-ylang essence.
Copra,
the dried coconut meat that yields coconut oil, once an
important
Comoran export, had ceased to be a significant factor in
the
economy by the late 1980s, when the world's tastes shifted
from
high-fat coconut oil toward "leaner" substances such as
palm oil.
Although clove production and revenues also experienced
swings,
in the early 1990s cloves did not appear to face the same
sorts
of challenges confronting vanilla and ylang-ylang. Most
Comoran
vanilla is grown on Njazidja; Nzwani is the source of most
ylangylang .
Numerous international programs have attempted to
reduce the
country's dependence on food imports, particularly of
rice, a
major drain on export earnings. Organizations initiating
these
rural development programs have included the EDF, the
IFAD, the
World Food Program, the Arab Bank for Economic Development
in
Africa, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the
governments of France and the United States. Despite these
international efforts, which numbered as many as seventeen
in
1984, food production per capita actually declined in
Comoros
during the 1980s. The major clove and vanilla growers,
whose
plantations occupy the islands' fertile coastal lands,
generally
resisted these restructuring efforts, as did
rice-importing
firms, including the country's largest, Établissements
Abdallah
et Fils.
Crowded onto the mountain slopes by the cash crop
plantations, food-crop farmers have caused deforestation
and the
erosion of the highlands' thin, fragile soil. In response,
aid
providers have dedicated an increasing amount of
agricultural
assistance to reforestation, soil restoration, and
environmentally sensitive means of cultivation. For
example, all
United States agricultural aid in 1991 (US$700,000) was
directed
to such projects, as was a US$4 million loan from the IFAD
to
help initiate a small producers' support program on
Nzwani.
The livestock sector is small--some 47,000 cattle,
120,000
goats, 13,000 sheep, and 4,000 asses in 1990. Comoros
continues
to import most domestically consumed meat.
Since the latter part of the 1980s, Comoros has made
headway
in developing fisheries as a source of export earnings. In
1988
the government concluded a three-year agreement with the
EC by
which forty French and Spanish vessels would be permitted
to fish
in Comoran waters, primarily for tuna. In return, Comoros
would
receive ECU300,000, and ECU50,000 would be invested in
fisheries
research. In addition, fishing vessel operators would pay
ECU20
per ton of tuna netted. Although the deep waters outside
the
islands' reefs do not abound in fish, it has been
estimated that
up to 30,000 tons of fish could be taken per year from
Comoran
waters (which extend 320 kilometers offshore). The total
catch in
1990 was 5,500 tons. Japan has also provided aid to the
fishing
industry. Fisheries development is overseen by a state
agency,
the Development Company for Small-Scale Fisheries of
Comoros
(Société de Développement de la Pêche Artisanale des
Comores).
Data as of August 1994
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