How firm secured EU, US market for Lake Tanganyika fish

Dar es Salaam. Alpha Tanganyika Flavour Limited is in the process of meeting the target of supplying nearly 580 tonnes of baked fish and sardines to the European Union (EU) and the US markets.

The company has been accredited to export fish and sardine from Lake Tanganyika which is located in the west of Tanzania.

It is now collaborating with the government through the ministry of Livestock and Fisheries in order to increase the number of fish collection centres in order to increase the amount of fish processed for export.

Speaking to The Citizen at the side-line of the ongoing Agriculture Food Systems Summit taking place here, the firm’s managing director, Mr Alpha Nondo said only five containers consisting 18 tonnes of the produce each have been exported reaching August this year.

“We are very far behind the market demand. The intended increase in collection centres from Kigoma, Katavi and Rukwa regions as well as mobilisation to fishermen will probably enable us to increase the exported amount,” he said.

Disclosing how the firm secured the markets, Mr Nondo said it wasn’t easy, noting that for the US they were forced to visit several cities in search for customers.

He said that was after the two initial export trials that saw consignments worth $88,000 destroyed over quality concerns.

“This was a huge blow. Since then we decided to work on turning this challenge to be an opportunity because Africans living in Toronto, Canada had expressed the passion of consuming fish and sardine from their continent,” he said.

“We engaged engineers who started in 2019, they started to develop a baking and drying machine, the exercise that was completed in 2021,” he added.

He said the move was accompanied with improving the quality of packaging, noting that currently, the company is exporting fish from Lake Tanganyika famously known as Migebuka and sardine to over 22 US cities.

According to him, it was a huge pain to lose $88,000, noting that worse enough they were supposed to cover the costs of disposing the fish.

However, he said the machine that they have acquired has a capacity to accommodate 72 trays of fish which is equal to two tonnes that can be baked within 6-8 hours.

“The equipment can also dry 1.5 tonnes of sardine within two hours and therefore 10 tonnes per day,” he added.

Furthermore, he said the equipment was a breakthrough, therefore commending the current administration for efforts aimed at making Tanzania the world food basket.

“AGRF 2023 should be a valuable opportunity for Tanzanians because apart from income generation, the conference is an avenue to citizens to learn from the successful nations in the area of technology and provide a rare chance of networking,” he said.

He called on Tanzanians to tap massive opportunities in the EU and US market provided they make quality and packaging a matter of priority.