The Exchange - East Africa's Source for Financial News The Exchange MAY 2017 - FINAL (1) | Page 16

16.
MAY 2017
REGIONAL NEWS
Baited fish: Tanzania’s
fishing industry
By merit of figures
alone, Tanzania ought
to be the continent’s
biggest fish producers,
but unfortunately,
it barely produces
enough to feed its own
people
some USD75.5 million for the First South
West Indian Ocean Fisheries Governance
and Shared Growth Project (SWIOFish1) out
of which Tanzania got USD36 million meant
to improve livelihoods of fishermen and
encourage private sector investment.
A Plea for Help
A major hurdle to the sector’s development is
low budget allocation coupled with even lower
disbursing rates. Around May last year during
the budgetary sessions, parliament was
informed that the Ministry of Agriculture,
to the GDP.
Dynamite: Blowing up illegal fishing in
Tanzania
Dynamite fishing has severe long-lasting
effects on marine ecosystem and gravely
endangers development of the fishing sector.
Some of the efforts undertaken by the
government to put to end the devastating
practice are as under:
•
Preparing the SWIO Fish project,
which includes a component on
Fish vendor at ferry market displaying
fish for sale. Photo by George Lupatu/
MediaPix
By Giza Mdoe
T
here is something fishy when a
country that has arguably the largest
fishing grounds both fresh and
marine, is among the least producers of fish
and fish products on the continent. Tanzania’s
total fresh water area is estimated to be 54,337
km 2 , marine territorial water area is 64,000
km 2 and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
is 223,000 km 2 while the total coastline is 1,450
kilometres long.
Tanzania shares three of the largest inland
lakes in Africa; more than half (51%) of Lake
Victoria, the second largest fresh water lake
in the world (68,800 km 2 ) is in Tanzania. It
also owns huge chunks of Lake Tanganyika,
the second deepest lake in the world (32,900
Km 2 ) and Lake Nyasa (30,800 km 2 ).
There are also small lakes and dams like
Lake Rukwa, Lake Manyara, Lake Eyasi
and Lake Natron, and Mtera and Nyumba ya
Mungu dams which cover more than 7% of the
land surface.
By merit of figures alone, Tanzania ought to
be the continent’s biggest fish producers, but
unfortunately, it barely produces enough to
feed its own people.
However, the country is not alone. Africa in
general is lagging behind compared to the rest
of the world. Production of fish around the
world continues to exhibit an upward trend.
Even though this fact is true for Africa as well,
the continent is lagging behind considerably
compared to the rest of the world.
According to the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) while the global total
amount of seafood produced in 2008 was 142
million tonnes, Africa produced a mere 8.1
million tonnes.
Tanzania’s fisheries sector supports more
than four million people engaged in various
fisheries activities like processing, trading,
fish transporting, net-making and boat-
building. The sector contributes 1.4% to the
national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
As of 2014, some 367,854 metric tonnes
of fish were produced valued at Tshs.
1,444,432,520 and which earned the country
over US$6,117,769,193.74 million in foreign
exchange from export of fish and fishery
products.1
While on the one hand these numbers may be
notable, comparatively speaking and givenA
the huge potential of the sector, they are not
impressive at all. The main reason behind
the underperformance of Tanzania’s fishing
industry is meager resource investment.
Despite efforts by the government to develop
the sector including reducing import taxes for
fishing equipment and its appeal to the private
sector to invest, it is only artisanal laymen
who are shouldering the sector’s development
burden.
Apart from a handful of commercial vessels
owned by Distant Water Fishing Nations
(DWFN), that get licensing to fish in the
country’s EEZ, the main players are artisans
using rudimentary tools and old methods.
While the sector grapples with numerous
challenges such as a dire lack of modern
equipment, inadequate skills and proper
training, it is further crippled by illegal
fishing using banned methods to make a catch
including bombs and small nets.
The result is a below-par performance that
has doomed fishers and fishermen to extreme
poverty. The World Bank Group (WBG) in
February 2015 step