Seafood Export Performance Effects of Industrial Upgrading: Evidence from Namibia’s Industrial Policy

In the reviewed literature, considerable attention has been paid to the relationship between policy intervention and seafood export performance. However, the relationship with respect to an industrial policy targeting the transformation of seafood products within the processing and manufacturing sector has not been investigated as yet. This study attempts to fill this gap. With a balanced panel of 29 countries, this paper investigates the effectiveness of Namibia’s industrialisation policy on processed seafood export outcomes spanning the period 2001 to 2019. The study employed the Difference-in-Difference (DID) methodology and the findings confirm the model’s applicability and the absence of improved export performance before policy intervention. The DID estimation for the full sample suggests policy intervention enhanced processed seafood export outcomes however, the effect cannot be generalised to all export markets and likewise cannot be applicable to Namibia’s export competitiveness in all markets. The empirical findings likewise substantiate that while the intervention enhanced differentiated export outcomes in European markets, regional importers prefer unprocessed seafood. In view of the need to limit the export of unprocessed seafood and enhance the gains from the seafood trade, this study recommends that the intervention should focus on regional market seafood preferences in order to achieve the objectives of the industrialisation policy.