SMEs digest: Report on ‘fish volumes up’ leaves fishermen perplexed

Dar es Salaam. While the government reports an increase in the volumes of fish in Lake Victoria, wholesalers and operators of fish processing factories say they cannot see the impact of that - if any!

Official figures from the ministry of Fisheries and Livestock Development show that the volumes of Nile perch in Lake Victoria went up by 95.5 percent in the past five years. The figures show that Nile perch volumes rose from 417,936 tonnes in 2016 to 816,964 in 2020.

Similarly, the volumes of fish caught by fishermen in their natural environment (lakes, oceans, rivers and water dams) went up from 362,645 tonnes in the 2015/16 financial year to 497,567 tonnes in FY- 2019/20.

These figures notwithstanding, fish wholesalers and operators of small scale fish processing factories say they have nothing to smile about!

Joseph Maganiko, 44, is one of them. He started a fish business in 2016 by buying Nile perch from wholesale and distributing them to major cities in the country. Mr Maganiko, a resident of Mwanza tells The Citizen that before 2018 the business was booming due to the large availability of Nile perch at the time and, he says, he did not regret his engagement with the trade.

The businessman reveals he sold his farm at Sh10 million and used the capital to start a fishery business.

“For two years (2016 to around 2018) the business was very lucrative and the price was cheaper for us (wholesale), but as I speak to you today, I have abandoned the business because of the operating costs following an abrupt scarcity of fish,” claims Mr Maganiko.

Not only Mr Maganiko’s business that is in shreds, but also the factories are said to be largely affected in terms of production due to the same situation described by the businessman who late last year opted for pastoralism.

Beatrice* an employee of the Musoma Fish Processing Ltdsaid fish availability has declined substantially, adding that the factory was processing below its capacity.

“I can honestly say that from 2018 onwards, the supply of these fish was difficult and the factory greatly reduced production,” she says without revealing actual production levels.

Mr Maulid Ndamwe, a worker at the Tanzania Fish Processors Ltd (TFS), says a factory that has been processing and exporting Nile perch fillets since 1992 currently receives inadequate fish, which the affects the factory’s market chain.

Mr Ndamwe, who works in the TFS’s waste department where all scraps that are obtained after taking all fillets are shortly stored before being sold, says there has been a decrease in the fish supply.

“It’s noticeable whenever there is an increase in the number of fish but for at least a year or two now, there has been a massive decrease of fish supply in the industry…,” Mr Ndamwe tells The Citizen in an interview.

Why the situation?

The general secretary of the Tanzania Fishers Union (Tafu), Jephta Machandalo, says illegal fishing using prohibited nets was still a challenge in Lake Victoria.

“This (illegal) fishing system eliminates fish when they are still young from just three centimetres long and so legitimate fishermen who catch a perch of 50 centimetres end up catching nothing or find very little.

“This has created a huge shortage of fish to feed the factories in the Lake Zone,” explains Mr Machandalo.

He expounds that the situation has led to higher operating costs of fishing compared to revenues, leading to fish processing industries to operate below their capacity.

Mr Machandalo argues that although the regulations allow fishermen to use of solar instead of ‘Tilley’ lamps for fishing sardine, the traders and workers in processing factories are of the system [the use of solar] could be catastrophic to Nile perch.

“Sardine fishing using solar leads to the harvesting of young Nile perch from three centimetres who are then distributed in the local markets,” he says.

He says that the types of Japanese fishing nets (Zabrown) that have become popular with fishermen may be deeper and longer than normal and thus have a greater ability to harvest fish of all kinds.

“Sardine fishermen have acquired the skills and ability to target young Nile perch which they harvest in large quantities using these nets which are legitimate to them,” claims Mr Machandalo.

As a result, he says, fish - especially perch - were declining so much so that it becomes difficult to safeguard the mid-sized industries.

“For instance a few years ago, there were eight fish processing factories in Mwanza and now only five are operational. In Musoma there were three such factories but today there is only one left and people have lost jobs,” he notes.

This, he said, was all due to big investors abandoning the business as a result of high cost of production.

Way forward

Despite these observations by fishermen and fish traders, the country’s Fisheries sector has insisted that it is still cracking down on illegal fishing and has increasingly arrested the perpetrators.

“Of course there exist illegal practices but we are continuously fighting unlawful fishing and there is a team whose job is to do specifically that…,” said the permanent secretary in the ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, Dr Rashid Tamatamah.

Dr Tamatamah says the ministry will be in a position to speak when its team completes a research to authenticate the cause of the situation and promised to provide time for an interview with The Citizen that will provide answers based on the research outcomes.

But stakeholders suggest that in order to revitalize small businesses and industries in the fisheries sector in the lake region, there must be cooperation in eradicating illegal fishing.

They say regulating illegal fishing should be the involvement of all stakeholders instead of using state agencies alone.

“A group of legitimate fishermen should be involved to help control illegal fishermen who usually do not have special camps like the legal fishermen, we are the victims of this prohibited practice and therefore we should participate in curbing the problem,” says Mr Machandalo.

He also says that since it is difficult to control the type of fishing that leads to catching young fish, the use of solar, deep and long nets should be revisited.

“The review should be prioritised while research is conducted against these concepts of solar and netting.

“The fact is that many fishermen used to use good nets, now they are moving to fishing using nets from Japan,” explains Machandalo.