A report prepared by the GOM/FAO/UNDP Chambo Fisheries Research Project
MALAWI
![]() | FISH MARKETING IN LAKE MALOMBE, THE UPPER SHIRE RIVER AND THE SOUTH-EAST ARM OF LAKE MALAWI |
FI: DP/MLW/86/013, Field document 16, March 1992
by
M. Mdaihli, M.M. Hara & M.C. Banda
For bibliographic purposes this document should be cited as follows:
Mdaihli, M., M.M. Hara and M.C. Banda. 1992 Fish Marketing in Lake Malombe, the Upper Shire River and the south-east arm of Lake Malawi. GOM/UNDP/FAO Chambo Fisheries Research Project, Malawi. FI:DP/MLW/86/013, Field Document 16: 46p.
This report was prepared during the course of the Chambo Fisheries Research project. The conclusions and recommendations given in the report are those considered appropriate at the time of its preparation. They may be modified in the light of further knowledge gained at subsequent stages of the project.
The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area, or concerning the delimination of frontiers.
Map showing the project's working area and statistical divisions (minor strata).
The autors thank Mr. David S. Liao, FAO Fish Marketing Consultant, for preparing the first draft of the questionnaire, which was used in the fish marketing survey (traditional sector of the fishery) and Dr. Patricia A. Haggerty, FAO Nutrition Consultant for her professional advice during the review of the questionnaire.
We would like to express our sincere thanks to the Technical Assistants of the Fisheries Department Mangochi and Monkey Bay Mr. J. Phiri, Mr. Mpezeni, Mr. Thindwa, Mr. Mtonga, Mr. Bezai, Mr. Kazuzueni, Mr. Simon, Mr. Gideon, Mr. Bowa and Mr. Mhoni, who collected the data and carried out the interviews in an excellent manner.
Further, we very much appreciated the willingness of the fish traders to participate in the survey.
FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Mangochi, Malawi, March 1992
Hyperlinks to non-FAO Internet sites do not imply any official endorsement of or responsibility for the opinions, ideas, data or products presented at these locations, or guarantee the validity of the information provided. The sole purpose of links to non-FAO sites is to indicate further information available on related topics.
This electronic document has been scanned using optical character recognition (OCR) software. FAO declines all responsibility for any discrepancies that may exist between the present document and its original printed version.
Map of the project area
Acknowledgements
Glossary of terms
Abbreviations
Summary
2. STUDY DESIGN AND ORGANISATION OF THE SURVEYS
3. MARKETING IN THE TRADITIONAL SECTOR OF THE FISHERY
3.1 Description of the marketing network
3.1.2 Main species traded and methods of fish processing
3.1.4 Fish distribution patterns
3.1.5 Seasonality of operation
3.2 Socioeconomic characteristics of fish traders- with special regard to gender aspects
3.2.1 Fish trader characteristics
3.2.2 Socioeconomic background
3.2.3 Gender specific target species
3.2.4.2 Fish processing equipment
3.2.4.3 Fish transport equipment
3.2.8 Fish traders' relationship to fishermen
4. FISH MARKETING IN THE SEMI-INDUSTRIAL AND INDUSTRIAL SECTOR OF THE FISHERY
4.1 Fish trading in the semi-industrial sector
4.2 Maldeco's fish distribution system
Figure 1: Main target species of fish traders, by minor stratum
Figure 2: Proportion of traders who process the fish and traders who trade fresh fish, by minor stratum
Figure 3: Main marketing channels
Figure 4: Proportion of traders selling outside the project area, by minor stratum
Figure 5: Mean distances to destinations outside the project area, by minor stratum
Figure 6: Main transport means, by minor stratum
Figure 7: Seasonality of operation in Lake Malombe
Figure 8: Seasonality of operation in the Upper Shire
Figure 9: Seasonality of operation in the south-east arm of Lake Malawi
Figure 10: Increase of Chambo beach prices, 1990–1991
Figure 11: Beach price increases for Kambuzi, Usipa, Utaka and Kampango
Figure 12: Proportion of female fish traders, by minor stratum
Figure 13: Involvement of fishermen's wives in fish processing, by minor stratum
Figure 14: Types of traders, by minor stratum
Figure 15: Education of fish traders
Figure 16a: Previous occupation of male fish traders
Figure 16b: Previous occupation of female fish traders
Figure 17: Ownership of fishing equipment in the south-east arm of Lake Malawi
Figure 18: Ownership of fish processing equipment, by minor stratum
Figure 19: Value of fish processing equipment, grouped into classes, by male and female fish traders
Figure 20: Ownership of fish transport equipment, by minor stratum
Figure 21: Mean working capital, by minor stratum
Figure 22: Working capital classes, by male and female fish traders
Figure 23: Mean profit per fish trading trip, by minor stratum
Figure 24: Profit classes, by male and female fish traders
Figure 25a: Proportion of fish traders who always buy from the same fisherman entrepreneurs
Figure 25b: Fish traders' relationship to fisherman entrepreneurs
Figure 26: Main problems of fish traders
Figure 27: Comparison Chambo demand - Chambo supply
Figure 28: Comparison Kambuzi demand - Kambuzi supply
Figure 29: Proportion of different costs; for an average fish trading trip
Table 1: Fish trader density, by minor stratum
Table 2: Proportion of Chambo sold to different destinations
Table 3: Proportion of Kambuzi sold to different destinations
Table 4: Average duration of fish trading transactions, Lake Malombe (days)
Table 5: Average duration of fish trading transactions, Upper Shire River (days)
Table 6: Average duration of fish trading transactions, south-east arm of Lake Malawi
Table 7: Additional occupation of fish traders
Table 8: Target species, by male and female fish traders
Table 9: Proportion of fish traders incurring a loss in their most recent fish trading trip
Table 10: Annual costs and earnings of a trader without any equipment in multi-species trade
Table 11: Annual costs and earnings of a trader equipped with a drying rack and one basket trading Utaka
Table 12: Annual costs and earnings of a trader equipped with a bicycle in multi-species trade
Table 13: Annual costs and earnings for a trader equipped with a pick-up trading fresh Chambo
Table 14: Returns on variable costs for: Chambo, Kambuzi Usipa and Utaka
Local names | Scientific names | |
Chambo | - | Oreochromis spp. |
Chisawasawa | - | demersal haplochromine cichlids, caught off-shore by trawlers |
Kambuzi | - | demersal haplochromine cichlids, caught in-shore by traditional fishermen |
Kampango | - | Bagrus meridionalis |
Mbaba | - | demersal haplochromine cichlids, larger species, caught in-shore by traditional fishermen |
Mlamba | - | Clariid catfish |
Usipa | - | Engraulicypris sardella |
Utaka | - | Copadichromis spp. |
Chambo seine net | - | a large beach seine net with a minimum legal mesh size of 76mm in Lake Malombe and 90mm in the Upper Shire and Lake Malawi, targetted on Chambo |
Chirimila net | - | open-water seine net; operated usually by one plank boat and two dugout canoes; target species are Usipa and Utaka |
Kambuzi seine net | - | a small meshed beach seine net with a legal headline length not exceeding 100m in Lake Malombe and the Upper Shire and 150m in Lake Malawi, targetted on Kambuzi |
Nkacha net | - | open-water seine net operated usually by two plank boats; in construction, size and mesh size similar to the Kambuzi seine net, targetted on Kambuzi |
Traditional fishermen | - | use plank boats and dugout canoes to operate mainly Chambo seine nets, Kambuzi seine nets, gillnets, Nkacha nets, Chirimila nets; main target species are Chambo, Kambuzi, Usipa, Utaka; operate mainly for commercial purposes |
Semi-industrial fishermen | - | use trawlers and pair trawlers to operate bottom trawls; target species is Chisawasawa; operate for commercial purposes |
Industrial fishery | - | represented by the commercial fishing company Maldeco, uses ring nets, midwater trawls and bottom trawls; target species are Chambo and Chisawasawa |
Fisherman entrepreneur | - | the head of the fishing integrated enterprise; owns fishing gear and/or fishing craft; might be actively involved in the actual operation of catching fish or might supervise the operation from the beach |
Fishing integrated enterprise | - | set of interrelated fishing economic units and non-fisheries income earning activities, which are managed by the members of a fisherman entrepreneur's household and hired labourers |
Fish traders | - | all people who buy and sell fish for commercial purposes, including fishermen who sell the catch at other places than the beach where they land |
Matola | - | local name for private commercial transport |
FE | - Fisherman entrepreneur |
LM | - Lake Malombe |
Maldeco | - Malawi Development Corporation |
MK | - Malawian Kwacha, US$ 1=MK 2.70 at the time of the survey |
MS | - Minor stratum |
SEA | - South-east arm of Lake Malawi |
US | - Upper Shire River |
The traditional sector of the fishery provides income earning opportunities for more than 3000 fish traders. The competition between fish traders is high, especially in Lake Malombe. A large proportion of the traders' activities is targetted on the smaller food fish such as Kambuzi, Utaka and Usipa, which is usually dried or smoked before sale. Icing or salting is not common. The marketing network is very complex and involves many people at different stages. Fish traders use different marketing channels and are, in many cases, not bound to a single one. Half of the fish traders reside outside the project area. Main target destinations are Liwonde, Machinga, Zomba, Limbe Blantyre, Chiradzulu, Thyolo and Mulanje in the southern part of Malawi, Ntcheu, Dedza, Mchinji, Lilongwe in the Central region and Mzimba, Nkhata Bay, Mzuzu, Rumphi and even Karonga in the north. Matola and public transport are the most common transport means, only a few traders own bicycles (7%), motor bikes (0.6%) or pick-ups (2%). October is the month with the highest trading activity level. Some 15% of the fish traders are women. The majority (61%) of them are female heads of households. Many fish traders, male as well as female, own fish processing equipment, worth often less than MK100. The working capital of traders ranges between less than MK100 and more than MK2000. The latter group consists mainly of male traders. Working capital and profit from fish trading is highest in MS2.2, the main Chambo catching area. Fixed business relationships between fish traders and fishermen are established in some parts of the project region. Female fish traders are often related to the fishermen they buy fish from. A lack of fish and capital are the major constraints for fish traders from the traditional sector of the fishery, followed by high buying prices and transport problems. Post harvetst losses do not appear as major problem. A high proportion of fish traders can no longer satisfy their demand for Chambo.
The marketing network of the semi-industrial sector of the fishery is less complex than in the traditional fishery. The main part of the fish is traded by some 100 wholesalers, who book the catch in advance and appear with own or hired pick-ups at landing time on the beach. They load their pick-ups, mainly with Chisawasa, add ice and transport the fish to town markets, mainly to Limbe, where they sell it, preferably wholesale, to other fish traders. A smaller part of the catch of the semi-industrial fishermen is sold to traders, who process the fish on drying racks located near the landing site and sell it, preferably wholesale as well, to customers or other traders. Due to scarcity of fish the fishermen are in the position to choose the traders. Traders are therefore very much inclined to maintain a good personal relationship to fishermen.
The industrial fishing company Maldeco sells 60% of the catch through its own fish distribution system. The remaining part is sold either by registered fish traders (35%) or on retail basis to small-scale traders or customers.