Dar es Salaam. Despite government efforts to improve fishing facilities, market centres and landing sites across Lake Victoria, a new study has
exposed uncertainties associated with the setting of fish prices that affect the wellbeing of artisanal fishers.Upon arrival at the landing site, artisanal fishers normally sell their catch to middlemen at a landing price, which is termed exploitative compared to what the agents earn from traders.
The study, dubbed ‘Two-stage hedonic analysis of fish attributes around Lake Victoria,’ was conducted by Mr Damian Sambuo and Dr Kitala Malamsha, from Moshi Co-operative University (Mocu) in collaboration with Dr Stephen Kirama from the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).
The researchers believe that artisanal fishermen face various challenges which hinder them from meeting the best landing price.
These include the agent’s exploitation of fishermen; the imbalance of negotiation power; limited access to production facilities; idiosyncratic preferences; lack of improved skills; and the use of modern technology.
“The environment fishermen operate in does not support the market being structured, and this has been influenced by players (agents, middlemen, buyers, and marching guys),” the report reads in part.
“As a result, the conduct of players has significant consequences in determining landing price, which leads to inferior performance, thus leading to fish pricing not thriving. Moreover, the landing price could be easily determined if the fishermen decided to set a price as per input costs,” the report added.
On the other hand, since the Lake Victoria fishery market is dominated by middlemen (buyers) while considering their relationship with fishermen, a decrease in input prices is expected, as buyers tend to maximize profits.
The study suggested that with a poor market structure, conduct, and performance, the increase of buyers does not support the demand theory because of collusion. The journal called on policy makers to restructure methods for determining fish prices and price information policies and provide skills to fishermen on various selling tactics that achieve specific market results at their landing centres.
Speaking recently in Mwanza, the chairperson of the country’s fishermen’s association, Bakari Kadabi, was of the view that the government needed not only to monitor the sector closely but also invest massively as the sector seemed to be left in the hands of fishermen.
“Of course, much has been done, but still, fishermen do not benefit from their toil. Mind you, fish is a perishable good. So, sometimes, you are forced to sell it so that you may not incur a huge loss,” he noted
“It is surprising that a cotton farmer contributes to the national GDP massively compared with what the fishing sector contributes, yet cotton is a seasonal crop while fishing is done every given day,” he added.
According to him, price setting is a challenge for fishermen as they do not have the mandate for it. He felt there was a need for an empowerment programme for fishermen as most of them conducted their business with little knowledge regarding marketing.
“We also call upon the government and other investors to construct cold storage facilities through which our catch will be preserved, similar to what has been done with the warehousing receipt system ,” he noted.
A warehousing receipt system enables farmers to deposit storable goods such as grains, coffee, or cashew in exchange for a warehouse receipt (WR), a document issued by warehouse operators as evidence that specified commodities of stated quantity and quality have been deposited at a particular location in case prices fall right after harvesting time. The system, he said, will help fishermen to store fish and sell them at a later time when prices have picked up, hence avoiding price risk.
“We also want the government to equip us with the knowledge that will allow us to conduct business with confidence,” he said. Responding to Mr Kadabi, Livestock and Fisheries deputy minister Abdallah Ulega admitted that not much had been done within the industry, assuring fishing stakeholders that the government was reviving the sector.
“The current administration tries hard to strengthen the sector so that everyone involved benefits from the struggle. For instance, by 2025, we were envisioned to produce at least 600,000 metric tonnes per annum,” he explained, adding that the president had added another push by providing over Sh100 billion, of which 60 percent was injected into fish production.”
We also had shortcomings on our syllabus as we never offered market oriented programmes.”
According to the deputy minister, any person enrolling in fishing or livestock related courses, will also study marketing related courses.
“Everything on livestock is money which applies to fish, everything on it, be it fillets, fish scales which produce cod leather, fish oil, the bons, so everything is money,” the deputy minister observed.
“We don’t want an expert with tactics only for illegal fishing, we want a graduate, either from the Fisheries Education and Training Agency (FETA) or Livestock Training Agency (LITA), who has all it takes hence help those assigned to him.
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