Baja California Sur is one of the largest aquaculture oyster producers in Mexico. Currently, there are 136 cooperative societies that are dedicated to the production of this mollusk and generate around 2,400 tons per year, according to the entity's Secretariat of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Agricultural Development (Sepada).
However, entrepreneurs in this sector face complex challenges in obtaining public and private financing in order to start their operations and offer sustainable products to the market.
New Generation of Entrepreneurs
OysterMex oyster farm in San Buto, Baja California Sur. Source: Abinadi de la Cruz
San Buto, in northwestern Mexico, is home to a fishing community that for a long time obtained its livelihood from the extraction of Catarina clams.
However, in 2011, the community identified that there was overexploitation of the species and that this jeopardized the sustainability of fishing.
At that time, those engaged in commercial fishing saw aquaculture as an alternative to exploit the species in a more sustainable way and obtain a higher income.
This is how several aquaculture projects emerged in the community. One of them was OysterMex, founded by Lizbeth Ramírez, a young oyster farmer from a fishing family, who decided to undertake, together with her brother and a friend, a project that offers oysters with traceability and sustainability.
“At 23, when I was studying at university in 2017, my family proposed to me to be president of a cooperative and that's when we began to diversify into aquaculture as a result of the decline in coastal fishing. We are looking for new ways to generate employment and to live, but without leaving the community. And I realized that aquaculture is my passion,” Ramírez said.
After five years as president of the cooperative, in 2022 she devised OysterMex and, a year later, the company materialized with the promotion permit granted by the National Aquaculture and Fisheries Commission (Conapesca) for oyster cultivation, whose first harvest was registered in 2024.
The experience of presiding, having studied administration and working in various spaces, allowed him to conceive a project with social and environmental commitment.
“The possibilities of accessing good education for these new generations helps them to see fishing from another perspective (...) we are seeing, many cases of young people who are daughters or sons of fishermen undertaking projects of another dimension such as regeneration, of added value, that is, far beyond simply extractive activity and are coming up with very interesting technical and administrative tools for project management, etc., that can help them a lot,” said Juan Ferrón, director of public policies at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Mexico organization.
Funding Challenges and Opportunities
EDF Mexico published a report in 2023 on sustainable financing in the coastal fishing and aquaculture sector in Mexico, where it identified that there are very complex barriers to access sustainable finance, one of the main ones being informality.
“As a productive sector, this is a very clear barrier. The fact that small producers do not have a formal record of their operations, that they do not have accounts and do not formally operate with their registration as taxpayers and such issues, significantly limits the possibility that producers may be of interest in sustainable financing instruments,” said Ferrón.
Ramírez has the advantage of being a company incorporated before the Ministry of Finance and benefited through promotional support from Sepada in 2024.
“The government helped me through promotional support where I put 30% and the Sepada put in the remaining 70%. I also took other training opportunities such as workshops that are also very important. It's not monetary support, but it's part of the investment in training and training,” Ramírez said.
Most of the money he has invested has been through his own resources and family or bank loans, and he has used it for the installation of infrastructure, planting and pre-fattening of the oyster, as well as for the development permit that took a year to obtain and cost him approximately 40,000 pesos.
Due to the level of overexploitation of fishing resources, José Alfredo Bermúdez, head of the Sepada in Baja California Sur, pointed out that there is no carrying capacity in the sea to grant more fishing permits, which is why aquaculture is currently the alternative of conversion for fishing communities.
Every year, the institution allocates one million pesos for training the fishing and aquaculture sector to strengthen issues such as administrative management, Bermúdez said. However, from the institution, one of the challenges they face is the lack of budget to provide promotional support.
“The problem is that the budget is not enough for the requests we receive. For example, in 2024 we had requests in the fishing and aquaculture sector for 90 million pesos and we only have 19 million budgeted, the rest of the producers are still working for the 2025 financial year. We have a shortage of resources to be able to accept everyone,” Bermudez said.
Ramírez has also explored private and philanthropic opportunities such as Hatch Blue, which consisted of intensive 11-day training, and has also been part of the programs of TECA Mexico, an incubator promoted by BFA Global focused on ventures with social and environmental impact in marine-coastal ecosystems in Mexico.
After this tour, he was able to consolidate his project and create his business model.
Lizbeth Ramírez exhibiting the OysterMex project at the Hatch Women in Ocean Food event on January 16, 2025 in La Paz, Baja California Sur. Source: Sarah Karner
In 2025, Ramírez expects to expand OysterMex into the market through the diversification of products such as clams, axe callus and lion's hand, and later export its products.
Advantage of sustainable projects
Because Sepada has limited resources, Bermúdez pointed out that they prioritize requests that privilege projects led by women, young people and the elderly, as well as those that contemplate sustainability components.
Ferrón pointed out that this not only happens with public sector support, but also in the private sector, where preference is given to projects that seek a transition to sustainable and responsible management of resources.
In this regard, philanthropy has played a major role in financing sustainable projects in fisheries and aquaculture.
“The vast majority of the resources that have been channeled to sustainable fishing and aquaculture projects in Mexico come from philanthropic sources. The fact that projects focus on sustainable management models, participatory governance and environmental objectives gives them very clear access to philanthropic investment projects through civil organizations. Without a doubt, the fact that a fishery is embarking on a sustainability or certification process gives it a very clear advantage in terms of access to funds,” said Ferrón.
Comentarios (0)