When the European Union banned exports of fish from Lake Victoria during the 1990s, it highlighted the economic significance of regional fishery exports but also the difficulty African countries can have with European health and safety standards.
For Uganda, where fishery exports constitute 6% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), that kind of trade barrier can seriously hamper economic development.
In Mozambique, a country famous for its large, quality gambas throughout the region, it is blocked from exporting to the EU for sanitary reasons.
But together with the United Nations University, the government of Iceland has developed a fisheries programme to help experts from developing countries tackle sanitary, management and even trade issues with hands-on learning in Iceland they can apply back home.
According to Tumi Tomasson, course director for the UN University Fisheries Training Programme (UNUFTP), about 20 students per year follow the course and about 45% of those come from Africa.
“Many of our African fellows come from the countries surrounding Lake Victoria. The EU imposed a temporary ban in the late 1990s on the importation of fish from Lake Victoria because of poor quality control and hygiene and safety factors, though the ban has now been lifted,” says Thor Asgeirsson, the programme’s deputy director.
“Many of the African fellows who have attended our course, particularly those who have taken the quality-management course, worked on improving issues related to fish quality in their region as their final project,” he says.
Student projects
Tackling the issues in Lake Victoria has played a big role in the projects students undertake during their year at the UNUFTP. Students from Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and The Gambia make up the majority of African participants.
Since the course started in 1998, many Africans have carried out projects that have benefited both trade and the local economic situation in their home regions. Some of these have specifically centred on Nile perch, a local freshwater fish that is favoured in Europe as a low-cost alternative to cod and hake.
Two Ugandan students, who attended the programme separately, both worked on Lake Victoria issues during their studies and are now both working on projects to create joint fisheries policies for the three countries surrounding the lake — Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Alex Bambona at Uganda’s Fisheries Training Institute studied marketing opportunities for Ugandan Nile perch at the UNUFTP in 2002 and is now working on the tri-country strategy for Lake Victoria fisheries exports to the EU, a policy he recommended during his studies.
“The [Ugandan] government, in conjunction with its development partners, is currently stepping up efforts regarding fish farming and opportunities for a joint marketing strategy between the three East African countries,” says Bambona.
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have moved closer over the past few years in most aspects of trade and economy and are likely to continue doing so. Last September, African cellphone provider Celtel launched the world’s first borderless mobile service between the three countries. More cross-border trade and cooperation is expected.
Management
Joyce Nyeko, with the Department of Fisheries Resources, under the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Entebbe in Uganda, also studied opportunities for Ugandan Nile perch at the UNUFTP in 2004. Like Bambona, she is now working on joint fishery strategies for the region, but from the management side rather than marketing, with the development of a fisheries management plan for Lake Victoria, funded by the EU.
She says that socio-economic studies are being carried out to generate information that will help secure the livelihoods of those in fisheries-dependent communities and will help effective management of the Nile-perch fishery.
On the production and marketing side, there is plenty more to be done. During his studies, Bambona found it is possible for Ugandan processors to add more value to their current products by packaging, glazing and portioning to the required retail packs for EU consumers.
Adding value to products rather than just the trade of commodities such as fish or cotton is one of the goals of African countries in developing global trade participation. The EU often funds training programmes on adding value to products.
“A couple of factories are now exporting fish portions and revenues have increased over the past few years — even to the extent of overtaking coffee, which has always been the main export earner,” says Bambona. — IPS