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| There is great potential in the fisheries sector to enhance Tanzania's food and nutrition security and help reduce poverty at both the household and national levels.(File photo) |
Tanzania, like many African countries is endowed with very rich fish
resources from the India Ocean, several lakes, rivers, floodplains and
fish farms. Fish from these water bodies generate a range of benefits
including but not limited to food and nutrition security, livelihoods,
exports and ecological resilience.
According to the Food and Agriculture (FAO) the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report (2014), the value added by the fisheries sector as a whole in 2011 was estimated at more than US$24 billion, representing 1.26 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of all African countries.
It is also estimated that the fisheries sector in Africa directly employs 12.3 million people as full-time fishers or full-time and part-time processors. Additionally, the livelihoods of millions more are directly dependent on the fisheries sector.
World Fish Center (2015) reports that Africa’s GDP growth in the recent years has been impressive, although the continent plays an insignificant role in global trade.
It is estimated that Africa's shares in global exports is barely 3 percent. Furthermore, African countries trade more with the rest of the world than they do among themselves.
In 2012, the formal intra-African trade was estimated to be around 11percent of the continent's total, compared to 54 percent in Asia; 32 percent in advanced economies of America, and 66 percent in Europe
There is great potential in the fisheries sector to enhance Tanzania’s food and nutrition security and help reduce poverty at both the household and national levels.
But the trade in fish in Africa is constrained by inadequate market infrastructure such as impassable roads during the rainy seasons and inhibiting policy and institutional frameworks.
The latter has led to a vibrant informal trade system that is thought to be higher than trade through the normal way. There seems to be a lot of fish which crosses the borders to various destinations which are unreported, unrecorded and untaxed.
The poor infrastructure has led to high transport costs, complex trade rules and inadequate market information, all which have prevented Tanzania and Africa as a whole, from optimising the social and economic benefits available from fish trade.
The University of Dar es Salaam, together with eight other universities from across Africa, is part of a game-changing project called “Improving Food Security and Reducing Poverty through Intra-regional Fish Trade in Sub-Saharan Africa” (also referred to as Fish Trade Programme).
The programme undertakes research, generates and share information on the structure, products and value of intra-regional fish trade and its contribution to food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
The other universities taking part in this prestigious project are Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) of Malawi, Cheikh Anta Diop University (Senegal), University of Ibadan (Nigeria), University of Ghana, University of the Western Cape (South Africa), Makerere University (Uganda) and Felix Houphouet-Boigny University (Cote d’Ivoire).
The Universities in Fish Trade Programmeis part of the implementation phase of “Fish Trade for a Better Future”, whose focus is to improve food and nutritional security and reducing poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa by supporting and strengthening the capacities of countries to better integrate intra-regional fish trade into their development and food security agendas.
Fish Trade for a Better Future is an EU-funded project that was established to facilitate the development of fish trade in Africa by focusing on conducting research to generate data that will inform crucial policy decisions.
The project is led by World Fish in partnership with the African Union Inter-Africa Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and NEPAD.
Fish Trade for a Better Future aims to, among other goals, increase the capacities for trade amongst private sector associations, in particular of women fish processors and traders and equip them to make better use of expanding trade opportunities through competitive small and medium scale enterprises.
It also aims to facilitate the adoption and implementation of appropriate policies, procedures and standards by all key players participating in intra-regional fish trade.
“The trade in fish and fish products among African countries in becoming increasingly important for the food security and economic development of countries,” Dr Sloans Chimatiro, Programme Manager for Fish Trade said.
“But there is also an increasing demand by fish processors and traders, together with governments, that Africa changes the way it trades its fish.”
The value of Africa’s fisheries trade was estimated at more than US$24 billion in 2011, representing 1.26 percent of the GDP of all African countries.
It is estimated that the fisheries sector directly employs 12.3 million people as full-time fishers, full-time or part-time processors.
Globally, the fish commodity trade was valued at US$130 billion in 2013.
Students from Dar es Salaam and the other universities will be be commissioned to conduct fish trade corridor analysis but an important element of that will be ensuring that the research they do is relevant to the policy makers.
The students and their supervisors will be mentored by international experts in fisheries, including from World Fish, in order to provide the universities with global technological support and expertise.
They will also be meeting and advocating with policy makers, so that their research and policy recommendations has input from all stakeholders.
Onyango, P. O. of the University of Dar es Salaam says Africa’s GDP growth in the recent past has been impressive, although the continent plays an insignificant role in global trade. It is estimated that Africa's shares in global exports is barely 3 percent.
Furthermore, African countries trade more with the rest of the world than they do among themselves. In 2012, the formal intra-African trade was estimated to be around 11 percent of the continent's total, compared to 54 percent in Asia; 32 percent in advanced economies of America, and 66 percent in Europe (WorldFish Center, 2015).
He further says, Tanzania and Uganda are the main fish exporting countries to the region, while Kenya was an importer. Other export destination countries were DRC, Rwanda and Burundi.
Sun-dried dagaa and smoked tilapia are the leading regional export products. Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda remain the highest importers of fish from Lake Victoria.
Little, if any, fish was exported regionally from Kenya. In addition, the main marketing functions performed by the operators included production, processing, grading of fish, packaging, transportation, in addition to buying and selling. Seasonality on the market is exhibited mainly by changes in prices and this is attributed to fluctuations in the supply from the source countries.
In Kenya the study revealed that regional fish trade involved four fish species, namely, tilapia, dagaa, Nile perch, and the happlochromines.
Only semi-processed processed Nile perch fish and its by-products were imported into the Kenyan market. Nile perch traders do not deal in whole fish but by-products such as skin and chips as well as belly flaps, skins and maws.
In Tanzania, Nile perch and dagaa have been the fish most traded (Onyango et al 2006b). The Nile perch is traded in different forms, including fish chest, fish frames, off-cuts, fish maws, fish skin and dried fish/kayabo.
In Uganda, the species traded included Nile perch, tilapia and dagaa. Nile perch was traded smoked, sun-dried and also as by-products. Tilapia was traded fresh, smoked and sun-dried. Mukene was traded in the sun-dried form.
Fish species and products on Uganda’s regional fish trade did not only come from Lake Victoria but also from other lakes, namely Kyoga, Albert, George and Edward.
The sources of fish supply to the regional market were examined. As indicated earlier, Tanzania and Uganda were exporting countries in the region while Kenya was an importer.
In Kenya, Lake Victoria was the main source of fish in the regional trade. However, some fish came from Lakes Kyoga and Albert. Similarly, Nile perch and dagaa came into Kenya from the Tanzanian District of Tarime. Kisumu was a major entry port for fish brought in on large vessels.
Regionally, fish traders consist of both men and women (Heck et al, 2004) with more women observed in Kenya and Uganda (Table 7). Different nationalities are involved in other the countries except in Tanzania, where the nationals handled the trade.
Traders are of middle age across the countries. Regionally, the majority of the traders have attained Primary level of education. Most of the traders are either wholesalers or retailers. Various means of transportation is used with Tanzanian traders using mostly boats while Uganda traders use mainly trucks.
However, Onyango mentioned some of the constraints in regional marketing of fish as: Limited capital to meet the investment and operational requirements of the regional fish trade, such as fish purchase, preservation, sanitation and display facilities.
Poor shelter for trading fish, as most of the markets are open air types, which made the commodities vulnerable to weather conditions such as rain, extreme sunlight and heat; inadequate power as well as ice for preservation purposes; and high levy charges imposed by the various authorities in the regional fish traders.
Supply constraints
Fish scarcity is among the constraints in the regional fish market. Other supply constraints include: High competition for low supply from the different sources and several traders. Today traders follow the fish even from the landing sites.
Price fluctuations and the risks posed; and unpredictable rainy seasons that affected business as well as fish quality.
Technological constraints
Constraints related to fish handling could affect fish quality and cause tremendous losses to traders due to fish spoilage. The major constraints noted are inadequate handling facilities, the difficulty in getting ice blocks for preserving fish and processing facilities.
The constraints are: Spoilage of fish, inadequate handling facilities, lack preserving facilities, lack of display facilities, lack drying facilities, and lack of shelter from rains.
Financial constraints
Accessing credit remains a great constraint to the regional fish traders, limiting their working capital required for the trade. Traders cannot access credit due to among others: Lack of collateral in loan acquisition.
This has therefore meant that traders could access credit facilities from fellow fishers or business people in their villages based on trust.
Some traders who receive loans are unable to pay back as they have encountered losses in fish sales.
Traders fear that fish being a perishable good makes it risky to take a loan. This is because fish can rot if not bought and with no proper storage facilities they might not be able to repay. Traders lack bank accounts.
Transportation constraints
Boats used to transport fish are not reliable. Traders can get capsized in the lake and thereby lose a consignment.
There is no payment for any loss during transport as traders did not insure their goods while transporting them.
There was no transport system devoted to regional fish trade and traders often had to share carriers with passengers and other goods. Some roads not accessible during rainy season
Information constraints
Market information is crucial for traders if they are to make any profit. However, information is not always available when it is needed. Most traders do not have any market information.
The cost situations
Transport is regarded as the highest cost item in regional fish trade. Transport cost varies, depending on the distance to market, quantity of fish and means of transport used. In order to mitigate high transport costs, traders often teamed up and sent one representative with consignments or hired common vehicles.
Package costs included mainly labour for assembling bundles of processed fish and such packaging materials as polythene bags and ropes.
Storage is not considered to be of high cost to the traders as most of the fish is readily disposed of at the destination markets, from where the importers take responsibility for its storage.
Taxes and levies are high from the regional perspective. However, different countries had different levies on fish trade. In Uganda, it was the policy not to tax exports but traders had to pay fish export license fees as well as fish movement permit fees at the landing sites of origin.
Similarly in Kenya, most traders paid a fixed tax level irrespective of the volume of fish traded, which was considered minimal. In Rwanda food items imported are not taxed but DRC traders using Rwanda as transit have to pay for a transit fees.
Fish spoilage losses are incurred by some traders whenever it is not handled, preserved or transported appropriately. Weather, method of preservation and the means of transportation used are the main factors responsible for these losses.
According to the Food and Agriculture (FAO) the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report (2014), the value added by the fisheries sector as a whole in 2011 was estimated at more than US$24 billion, representing 1.26 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of all African countries.
It is also estimated that the fisheries sector in Africa directly employs 12.3 million people as full-time fishers or full-time and part-time processors. Additionally, the livelihoods of millions more are directly dependent on the fisheries sector.
World Fish Center (2015) reports that Africa’s GDP growth in the recent years has been impressive, although the continent plays an insignificant role in global trade.
It is estimated that Africa's shares in global exports is barely 3 percent. Furthermore, African countries trade more with the rest of the world than they do among themselves.
In 2012, the formal intra-African trade was estimated to be around 11percent of the continent's total, compared to 54 percent in Asia; 32 percent in advanced economies of America, and 66 percent in Europe
There is great potential in the fisheries sector to enhance Tanzania’s food and nutrition security and help reduce poverty at both the household and national levels.
But the trade in fish in Africa is constrained by inadequate market infrastructure such as impassable roads during the rainy seasons and inhibiting policy and institutional frameworks.
The latter has led to a vibrant informal trade system that is thought to be higher than trade through the normal way. There seems to be a lot of fish which crosses the borders to various destinations which are unreported, unrecorded and untaxed.
The poor infrastructure has led to high transport costs, complex trade rules and inadequate market information, all which have prevented Tanzania and Africa as a whole, from optimising the social and economic benefits available from fish trade.
The University of Dar es Salaam, together with eight other universities from across Africa, is part of a game-changing project called “Improving Food Security and Reducing Poverty through Intra-regional Fish Trade in Sub-Saharan Africa” (also referred to as Fish Trade Programme).
The programme undertakes research, generates and share information on the structure, products and value of intra-regional fish trade and its contribution to food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
The other universities taking part in this prestigious project are Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) of Malawi, Cheikh Anta Diop University (Senegal), University of Ibadan (Nigeria), University of Ghana, University of the Western Cape (South Africa), Makerere University (Uganda) and Felix Houphouet-Boigny University (Cote d’Ivoire).
The Universities in Fish Trade Programmeis part of the implementation phase of “Fish Trade for a Better Future”, whose focus is to improve food and nutritional security and reducing poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa by supporting and strengthening the capacities of countries to better integrate intra-regional fish trade into their development and food security agendas.
Fish Trade for a Better Future is an EU-funded project that was established to facilitate the development of fish trade in Africa by focusing on conducting research to generate data that will inform crucial policy decisions.
The project is led by World Fish in partnership with the African Union Inter-Africa Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and NEPAD.
Fish Trade for a Better Future aims to, among other goals, increase the capacities for trade amongst private sector associations, in particular of women fish processors and traders and equip them to make better use of expanding trade opportunities through competitive small and medium scale enterprises.
It also aims to facilitate the adoption and implementation of appropriate policies, procedures and standards by all key players participating in intra-regional fish trade.
“The trade in fish and fish products among African countries in becoming increasingly important for the food security and economic development of countries,” Dr Sloans Chimatiro, Programme Manager for Fish Trade said.
“But there is also an increasing demand by fish processors and traders, together with governments, that Africa changes the way it trades its fish.”
The value of Africa’s fisheries trade was estimated at more than US$24 billion in 2011, representing 1.26 percent of the GDP of all African countries.
It is estimated that the fisheries sector directly employs 12.3 million people as full-time fishers, full-time or part-time processors.
Globally, the fish commodity trade was valued at US$130 billion in 2013.
Students from Dar es Salaam and the other universities will be be commissioned to conduct fish trade corridor analysis but an important element of that will be ensuring that the research they do is relevant to the policy makers.
The students and their supervisors will be mentored by international experts in fisheries, including from World Fish, in order to provide the universities with global technological support and expertise.
They will also be meeting and advocating with policy makers, so that their research and policy recommendations has input from all stakeholders.
Onyango, P. O. of the University of Dar es Salaam says Africa’s GDP growth in the recent past has been impressive, although the continent plays an insignificant role in global trade. It is estimated that Africa's shares in global exports is barely 3 percent.
Furthermore, African countries trade more with the rest of the world than they do among themselves. In 2012, the formal intra-African trade was estimated to be around 11 percent of the continent's total, compared to 54 percent in Asia; 32 percent in advanced economies of America, and 66 percent in Europe (WorldFish Center, 2015).
He further says, Tanzania and Uganda are the main fish exporting countries to the region, while Kenya was an importer. Other export destination countries were DRC, Rwanda and Burundi.
Sun-dried dagaa and smoked tilapia are the leading regional export products. Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda remain the highest importers of fish from Lake Victoria.
Little, if any, fish was exported regionally from Kenya. In addition, the main marketing functions performed by the operators included production, processing, grading of fish, packaging, transportation, in addition to buying and selling. Seasonality on the market is exhibited mainly by changes in prices and this is attributed to fluctuations in the supply from the source countries.
In Kenya the study revealed that regional fish trade involved four fish species, namely, tilapia, dagaa, Nile perch, and the happlochromines.
Only semi-processed processed Nile perch fish and its by-products were imported into the Kenyan market. Nile perch traders do not deal in whole fish but by-products such as skin and chips as well as belly flaps, skins and maws.
In Tanzania, Nile perch and dagaa have been the fish most traded (Onyango et al 2006b). The Nile perch is traded in different forms, including fish chest, fish frames, off-cuts, fish maws, fish skin and dried fish/kayabo.
In Uganda, the species traded included Nile perch, tilapia and dagaa. Nile perch was traded smoked, sun-dried and also as by-products. Tilapia was traded fresh, smoked and sun-dried. Mukene was traded in the sun-dried form.
Fish species and products on Uganda’s regional fish trade did not only come from Lake Victoria but also from other lakes, namely Kyoga, Albert, George and Edward.
The sources of fish supply to the regional market were examined. As indicated earlier, Tanzania and Uganda were exporting countries in the region while Kenya was an importer.
In Kenya, Lake Victoria was the main source of fish in the regional trade. However, some fish came from Lakes Kyoga and Albert. Similarly, Nile perch and dagaa came into Kenya from the Tanzanian District of Tarime. Kisumu was a major entry port for fish brought in on large vessels.
Regionally, fish traders consist of both men and women (Heck et al, 2004) with more women observed in Kenya and Uganda (Table 7). Different nationalities are involved in other the countries except in Tanzania, where the nationals handled the trade.
Traders are of middle age across the countries. Regionally, the majority of the traders have attained Primary level of education. Most of the traders are either wholesalers or retailers. Various means of transportation is used with Tanzanian traders using mostly boats while Uganda traders use mainly trucks.
However, Onyango mentioned some of the constraints in regional marketing of fish as: Limited capital to meet the investment and operational requirements of the regional fish trade, such as fish purchase, preservation, sanitation and display facilities.
Poor shelter for trading fish, as most of the markets are open air types, which made the commodities vulnerable to weather conditions such as rain, extreme sunlight and heat; inadequate power as well as ice for preservation purposes; and high levy charges imposed by the various authorities in the regional fish traders.
Supply constraints
Fish scarcity is among the constraints in the regional fish market. Other supply constraints include: High competition for low supply from the different sources and several traders. Today traders follow the fish even from the landing sites.
Price fluctuations and the risks posed; and unpredictable rainy seasons that affected business as well as fish quality.
Technological constraints
Constraints related to fish handling could affect fish quality and cause tremendous losses to traders due to fish spoilage. The major constraints noted are inadequate handling facilities, the difficulty in getting ice blocks for preserving fish and processing facilities.
The constraints are: Spoilage of fish, inadequate handling facilities, lack preserving facilities, lack of display facilities, lack drying facilities, and lack of shelter from rains.
Financial constraints
Accessing credit remains a great constraint to the regional fish traders, limiting their working capital required for the trade. Traders cannot access credit due to among others: Lack of collateral in loan acquisition.
This has therefore meant that traders could access credit facilities from fellow fishers or business people in their villages based on trust.
Some traders who receive loans are unable to pay back as they have encountered losses in fish sales.
Traders fear that fish being a perishable good makes it risky to take a loan. This is because fish can rot if not bought and with no proper storage facilities they might not be able to repay. Traders lack bank accounts.
Transportation constraints
Boats used to transport fish are not reliable. Traders can get capsized in the lake and thereby lose a consignment.
There is no payment for any loss during transport as traders did not insure their goods while transporting them.
There was no transport system devoted to regional fish trade and traders often had to share carriers with passengers and other goods. Some roads not accessible during rainy season
Information constraints
Market information is crucial for traders if they are to make any profit. However, information is not always available when it is needed. Most traders do not have any market information.
The cost situations
Transport is regarded as the highest cost item in regional fish trade. Transport cost varies, depending on the distance to market, quantity of fish and means of transport used. In order to mitigate high transport costs, traders often teamed up and sent one representative with consignments or hired common vehicles.
Package costs included mainly labour for assembling bundles of processed fish and such packaging materials as polythene bags and ropes.
Storage is not considered to be of high cost to the traders as most of the fish is readily disposed of at the destination markets, from where the importers take responsibility for its storage.
Taxes and levies are high from the regional perspective. However, different countries had different levies on fish trade. In Uganda, it was the policy not to tax exports but traders had to pay fish export license fees as well as fish movement permit fees at the landing sites of origin.
Similarly in Kenya, most traders paid a fixed tax level irrespective of the volume of fish traded, which was considered minimal. In Rwanda food items imported are not taxed but DRC traders using Rwanda as transit have to pay for a transit fees.
Fish spoilage losses are incurred by some traders whenever it is not handled, preserved or transported appropriately. Weather, method of preservation and the means of transportation used are the main factors responsible for these losses.
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