€20 million. Five countries. One bet: that fish can fight malnutrition where it hits hardest. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Union (EU) have launched a five-year scheme — NAVAC — to rebuild aquatic food value chains in some of the world’s most fragile places, and the model it uses is one Indian fish farmers should know about.
The full name is a mouthful: New Aquatic Food Value Chains for Sustainable Healthy Diets in Fragile Contexts. The idea is simple. In Chad, Colombia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and South Sudan, fish is already one of the best foods available — rich protein, essential micronutrients, affordable when the chain works. But broken cold chains, weak processing and missing markets mean it often never reaches the children and mothers who need it most. NAVAC exists to fix the chain, from net to plate.
Scheme at a Glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Scheme | NAVAC — New Aquatic Food Value Chains for Sustainable Healthy Diets in Fragile Contexts |
| Launched | 21 October 2025, Rome (FAO newsroom) |
| Runs | 2025–2030 (five years) |
| Funding | €20 million from the European Union + an initial $500,000 from FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme |
| Countries | Chad, Colombia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, South Sudan |
| Implemented by | FAO, in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark and national partners |
| Who benefits | Nutritionally vulnerable people — especially children and pregnant and lactating women — plus small-scale fishers and local fish businesses |
| Framework | FAO’s Blue Transformation roadmap; EU’s Global Gateway strategy |
Why Fish, Why Now
The timing is not an accident. FAO’s flagship State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024 (SOFIA) report recorded global fisheries and aquaculture production at a record 223.2 million tonnes in 2022 — 185.4 million tonnes of aquatic animals plus 37.8 million tonnes of algae. For the first time in history, aquaculture overtook capture fisheries as the main producer of aquatic animals: 130.9 million tonnes of aquaculture output, of which 94.4 million tonnes were aquatic animals — 51% of the total. The sector was worth a record USD 472 billion, supplying an estimated 20.7 kg of aquatic animal foods per person per year.
Yet, as FAO itself notes, many food security and nutrition plans still overlook aquatic foods. That gap is exactly what NAVAC targets. Fish delivers high-quality protein and micronutrients that fight malnutrition, and FAO points out it also helps lower the risk of non-communicable diseases. The problem in the five NAVAC countries is not that fish does not exist — it is that the journey from water to plate leaks value at every step.
The Five Countries
| Country | Region | Why it is in NAVAC |
|---|---|---|
| Chad | Central Africa | Fragile context; inland fisheries and Lake Chad basin value chains need upgrading |
| Colombia | Latin America | Pacific and Caribbean coastal communities; small-scale fishers and aquaculture producers |
| Guinea-Bissau | West Africa | Rich coastal waters, but weak processing and cold chains limit local nutrition gains |
| Mauritania | West Africa | Major fishing nation whose catch largely leaves the country; local supply chains are the target |
| South Sudan | East Africa | Nile fisheries with huge untapped potential in a fragile, food-insecure setting |
Note: FAO has not published a per-country funding split for the €20 million, so none is claimed here. The €20 million is the total EU contribution for the whole five-year programme.
How NAVAC Works — Net to Plate
NAVAC is not a handout scheme. It follows a three-stage method, and each stage is worth understanding because the same logic applies to any fishery — including India’s:
1. Analyse first. At the outset, FAO and the Technical University of Denmark analyse the aquatic food value chains in each country to find development opportunities, knowledge gaps and weak points. No money is spent on solutions before the diagnosis is done.
2. Design upgrading strategies. The findings guide strategies to increase the supply of healthy aquatic food to the people who need it most — better handling, processing, storage and distribution, not just more fishing.
3. Build new and better chains. With national partners, FAO will develop new value chains and improve existing ones, using innovative approaches such as advanced biotechnologies and new product development, so nutritious fish reaches vulnerable populations more effectively.
As FAO Deputy Director-General Godfrey Magwenzi put it at the launch: the aim is to “expand the supply of sustainable, affordable, safe and nutritious aquatic foods and ensure that it reaches nutritionally vulnerable populations while at the same time providing economic benefits to local communities through Blue Transformation innovations in aquatic food value chains.”
The Model Already Proved Itself: FISH4ACP
NAVAC is not starting from zero. It explicitly draws lessons from FISH4ACP, the FAO–EU–Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States programme that ran from 2020 to 2026 with a budget of about USD 47.8 million, working to make fisheries and aquaculture value chains more productive and sustainable across Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
The proof is in the results. In Zimbabwe, FISH4ACP’s five-year tilapia programme invested about US$2 million and delivered an estimated US$3.6 million a year in economic benefits, reaching 4,206 fish farmers — better feed, better fingerlings and better markets, not bigger subsidies. We covered those final results in detail in our report on Zimbabwe’s $2 million fish bet that now pays $3.6 million every year.
That is the NAVAC bet in miniature: fix the bottlenecks, and the same fish creates more nutrition and more income.
What Indian Fish Farmers Can Learn From It
NAVAC does not operate in India, and there is no application window for Indian fish farmers — this is a country-level programme for its five partner nations, and this post does not pretend otherwise. But three lessons travel directly:
- Cold chain is the multiplier. NAVAC’s biggest spending logic is handling, storage and processing — the same gaps that cost Indian fish farmers value between pond and market. India’s own flagship, the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), funds the same things; compare the two in our guide to PMMSY’s ₹5 lakh insurance cover for fishers.
- Diagnose before you invest. NAVAC spends its first phase analysing chains before funding fixes. A farmer or FPO planning a cold-storage or processing investment should do the same: find where the value actually leaks before spending.
- Nutrition is a market, not just a welfare goal. NAVAC treats vulnerable consumers as a market to be served with affordable fish products. Indian producers who develop low-cost, nutritious fish products for local markets are riding the same demand wave — and Europe’s own fishers are being paid to do similar work, as our reports on Malta’s 50% diversification grant and the Lombardy €350,000 FEAMPA fund show.
How to Follow NAVAC
Since there is no open call for individuals, the right move is to track the programme as it publishes results:
- Read the official launch: FAO’s newsroom release of 21 October 2025 — New FAO-EU initiative will boost vulnerable populations’ access to aquatic foods.
- Watch for country assessments: the first-phase value-chain analyses in Chad, Colombia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and South Sudan will show which interventions FAO picks — those findings are the playbook.
- Compare with FISH4ACP results: the earlier programme’s country reports show what worked and what did not; its official FAO project page lists its USD 47.8 million budget and 2020–2026 run.
- For Indian schemes, check PMMSY first: Indian fish farmers should apply to domestic schemes on the official fisheries portals, not to NAVAC.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Indian fish farmers apply for NAVAC funding?
No. NAVAC works in Chad, Colombia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and South Sudan only. Indian fishers should use PMMSY and state fisheries schemes instead.
How much money is involved?
€20 million from the EU plus an initial $500,000 from FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme, over five years (2025–2030). No per-country split has been published.
What does “Blue Transformation” mean?
It is FAO’s roadmap, adopted in 2021, to transform aquatic food systems: sustainable expansion of aquaculture, effective management of all fisheries, and upgraded value chains.
Is this the same as FISH4ACP?
No — FISH4ACP (2020–2026, ~USD 47.8 million) was the earlier programme. NAVAC builds on its lessons but is a separate, new initiative focused on fragile contexts and nutrition.
Why should Indian readers care about a scheme in Africa and Latin America?
Because the model — diagnose the chain, fix cold chain and processing, sell nutrition — is exactly what decides whether Indian fish farming earns more from the same catch. The Zimbabwe numbers prove the model pays.
Sources and verification: all figures and dates in this post were checked on 13 November 2026 against the official FAO newsroom release (published 21 October 2025), the official FAO FISH4ACP project page, and FAO’s SOFIA 2024 report (2022 data). NAVAC runs 2025–2030; it is an active, ongoing programme with no individual application window — readers should confirm the latest status on the FAO website before acting on any detail here.