To exploit the fish resources to its full potential, Kenya must leverage on data in her decision-making processes and seek to support the industry to grow.
While speaking at an SMEs conference at Strathmore University in Nairobi last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta banned the importation of fish from China. Will micro entrepreneurs who make a living from the Chinese fish supply chain want the ban? The directive may lead to some unintended consequences.
Fish consumption in Kenya stands at about 800,000 metric tons. In spite of the fact that the country is endowed with vast aquatic resources, total fish production is still below 300,000 metric tons. With demand far outstripping supply, an importation ban will automatically precipitate an unnecessary black market of fish.
Although the fish industry contributes a paltry 0.8 percent to GDP, it is a major employer providing direct employment opportunities to over 500,000 people and supporting over two million people indirectly. Kenya has a 640 km long continental coastline that could support diverse fish production but it has been left to foreign nations to trawl and most likely package the fish in high seas to export it to Kenya. Fisheries principal secretary Micheni Ntiba said in February 2018 that illegal foreign fishermen were depleting the country’s ocean resources. He urged Members of Parliament to pass the Kenya Coast Guard Service Bill to protect the industry resources that are being stolen. In my view, there are several other policy interventions that should urgently be considered. Instead of always talking about potential, there is need to begin to talk about collaborations and transfer of knowledge in order to build capacity along the entire fish supply chain.
For a start, policy makers must comprehensively respond to findings published 2016 in the journal Cogent Environmental Science confirming contamination of local fish production. The presence of this report online without any assurance could hurt farmers.
The Chinese fish has made inroads in virtually all African countries because they are addressing customer needs. In a free market economy like Kenya, nationalism will not address what the customer wants. The best approach is to build local fish products from the customer requirements and work backwards.
This can only be done if government, research institutions and private sector work together to deliberately develop the products. For many years, much of the fish trade was random but as the market started to be sophisticated, local fishermen started to suffer because they couldn’t meet the expected standards.
Yet the country has a standards organisation that aught to be educating citizens on how to improve their product quality.In some ways the market is developing. The entry of technology driven organizations like Victory Fish Farms (the first industrial fish production enterprise in Kenya), is helping fish farmers understand how they can be competitive. The government should take advantage of this company to grow fish production to meet the glaring deficit, increase employment opportunities and perhaps begin to address the fish problem in most African countries.In my recent visit to Zambia, I noted the debate is the same. In spite the fact Zambia is endowed with immense water resources, it imports fish from China.
They have no data on the relationship between production and consumption to understand the market. It is a common tragedy across many African countries at the time when virtually the entire world has embraced the concept of data driven decision making. Fish is a major food security component.
The UN recognises fish as a major source of protein that is crucial to fighting problems such as stunting in many developing countries. As such, we have every reason to ensure that its accessibility and affordability within the country especially with current prioritisation of food security.
To exploit the fish resources to its full potential, Kenya must leverage on data in her decision-making processes and seek to support the industry to grow. In 2014, Food and Agriculture Organisation director-general José Graziano da Silva said “The health of our planet as well as our own health and future food security all hinge on how we treat the blue world.”
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