by
E.J. Coenen
| FISHIN UGA/87/007 | December, 1988 |
In connection with the activities of the project “Rehabilitation of Fisheries Statistics and Information Systems” UGA/87/007 a field trip was made to Tororo District from 29/11 to 1/12/1988. The CTA of the project was accompanied by his driver and Mr. J. Wadanya, the Senior Fisheries Statistician/Biologist. On the way to and from Tororo a stop (concerning some administrative project matters) was made at UFFRO (Uganda Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute) in Jinja.
The mission reported to Mr. Henry Makanga, acting Regional Fisheries Officer for Tororo and Sigula Sub-County (the Sigulu islands, though belonging to Iganga district, are administered by the Tororo Regional Fisheries Office) who accompanied the mission on its visits to Busia Customs and market, Tororo and Malaba markets and Majanji, a major fish landing :
1. Busia Customs and Market.
Busia is an important bordertown, situated at about 47 km south of Tororo town. On Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, fish from Uganda is being exported to Kenya. The exported fish, consisting of sundried and smoked Tilapia only, is being traded by Uganda export companies. The exported fish is mainly originating from Lake Kyoga landings. Before going through Customs, the Fisheries Office delivers a Fish Inspection Certificate mentioning the total weight, the state of processing (dried/smoked) and the condition (good for human consumption or not) of the fish being exported. This is done by a Fisheries Assistant, present at Customs during the Export days. In absence of a weigh bridge, the weight of the exported fish, arriving at Customs by truck and loaded in big baskets, is roughly estimated by multiplying for each basket the number of fish (given by transporter) times the average weight (estimated by the Fisheries Assistant) per head. This estimation of weight is of course biased (most probably underestimated) as the exporters tend to give lower numbers of fish per basket with the result that they will have to pay less export taxes to Customs. The Customs Administration should therefore urgenly need to provide this (and probably other) bordertown(s) with weigh bridges. This will speed up Customs procedures and will have a positive effect on the relialibility of the recorded statistics of all kinds of exported goods.
Busia fishmarket is the most important of the region and maybe of the country and is a model of organisation, infrastructure and hygienic conditions when comparing it with other fishmarkets in the country and throughout other african states. The acting Regional Fisheries Officer, residing in Busia, organises twice a week a seminar with the Busia fishmongers on different subjects (organisation of fishmongers, handling of fish, hygienic selling conditions, etc.) and motivated them in such a way that the fishmongers themselves got organised in coherent associations, paid for the construction of roofed stalls (cemented tables, water for cleaning, etc) for the selling of smoked and fresh fish. Limited quantities (based on an estimate of local consumption; to avoid smuggling to Kenya) of smoked fish, mainly Tilapia originating for 90 % from Lake Kyoga and 10 % from Lake Victoria, are traded on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Small quantities of sundried “mukene” (Rastrineobola argentea) are also being sold. Fresh fish, Tilapia and Lates niloticus, from Lake Victoria (mainly coming from the Masese landing near Jinja; supply of fresh fish from the Majanji landing is nearly non existant because of poor landings there at the moment due to a lack of fishing gillnets and smuggling to Kenya) and Lake Kyoga (smaller sized fish) are traded daily. Separate facilities for the cleaning and selling of fresh nile perch have been erected on the market by the fishmongers. The collection of marketing statistics concerning the supply of processed and fresh fish on Busia market is the responsability of one Assistant Fisheries Development Officer (AFDO) and three Fisheries Assistants (FA's), one of the latter being present at Customs when processed fish is exported to Kenya. Another Fisheries Assistant controls the fish trading of the four Busia minor markets.
The collection of processed fish supply statistics is based on an estimate of total weight per basket : the number of fish per basket is given by the fishmonger, the fisheries assistant takes a sample of about five fish of different sizes and after weighing of it on a 5 kg scale calculates the average weight per fish. By multiplying the number of fish times the average weight per head the total weight of each basket (about 300 kg) is estimated and recorded. The estimated weights are greatly biased (underestimated ?) as the fishmongers tend to give lower numbers of fish per basket (he will have to pay less taxes) and because the weight sample is not chosen at random.
The statistics of marketed and exported fish are centralised towards the Regional Fisheries Officer who mentions these statistics in his monthly report to the headquarters of the Fisheries Department in Entebbe.
2. Majanji fish landing.
Majanji fish landing at Lake Victoria is situated at about 17 miles (27 km) south of Busia, the connecting road being in very bad condition (1.5 hours drive). Majanji is one of the four major fish landings of Lake Victoria in Tororo district (from east to west : Madua, Majanji, Busime and Nalyoba). Several scattered minor landings still have to be determined. One Fisheries Assistant, assigned to Bumulenge on Sigula islands, made a preliminary inventory of several of the fish landings on the islands, but because of lack of transport (canoe) he spends most of the time in Bumelenge.
Five to seven motorised fish collecting boats bring in daily (part) of the catch of about 100 fishing units (of which 30 boats are of very recent date : August-September 1988) from the Sigulu islands and some fishermen fishing around Majanji. Daily total fresh landings vary between 1 and 3 tons. The catches have decreased because of lack of gillnets to replace the old ones. The total catch of the islands fishermen is not landed at Majanji - only nile perch - as part of the catch (all the tilapias) is smuggled to Kenya while another part goes to the islands for processing and autoconsumption.
An Italian project is building a fish collecting centre at the fresh fish Majanji landing. Normally it was to be operational in January 1989 (with fish collecting boats collecting the fresh catches of the island fishermen on the lake). Before selling it to the fishmongers, the fishermen weigh their fresh nile perch (the total weight of fish per collecting boat is recorded).
At the fish landing of Majanji storage facilities for processed fish, a smoking kiln and shelves for counting the fish are present. At the time of our visit (about 11.30 hours in the morning no fresh nor processed fish was seen). The Fisheries Assistant responsable for the fisheries statistics of Majanji and the other three major landings was not present either.
3. Tororo and Malaba markets.
In general, fish trading facilities of Tororo market are very poor : the wooden stalls for the selling of processed and fresh fish, although separated, are in very bad condition, most often without a roof to protect the fish from sun and rain. The fresh fish, until recently cleaned on the ground, is now gutted and cut to pieces on big wooden truncs.
Only on Monday and Thursday, a limited quantity of processed fish (maximum three lorries, based on an estimate of local consumption), consisting of smoked tilapia and nile perch is brought to the market. This fish mainly comes from Bukungu landing of Lake Kyoga. Some smoked nile perch from Majanji landing is also sold on this market. About six wholesaler societies bring the smoked fish to the market where it is retailed by about 67 fishmongers.
A retailer picks out the processed fish out of the fishmonger's basket and grades it onto his stall according to size. The number and price of each grade of fish is recorded in the fishmonger's book. For marketing statistics purposes, one of the two Fisheries Assistants consults the fishmonger's book and totals the number of heads per grade and per stall and multiplies this with the average weight per head to estimate the total weight of processed fish traded per stall. This estimate of the average weight per fish is however biased as it is calculated from a weighed sample of one or two fish per grade : the weight estimate is most often too high as the grades of bigger fish normally contain lesser fish.
The daily fresh fish sale in Tororo is also limited, maximum three pick-ups, bringing the fish mainly from Masese landing near Jinja as the actual landings in Majanji are not sufficient to supply Tororo market. On 30/11/1988 about 700 kg of fresh nile perch and 150 kg of fresh tilapias were brought to the market.
Fish marketing statistics and price fluctuations are recorded by 1 AFDO and 2 FA for Tororo market and 1 AFDO and 2 FA for the 10 minor Tororo markets (incomplete sampling of thes minor markets).
The same situation as in Tororo prevails in Malaba market, west of Tororo and near the Kenyan border : poor facilities, daily trade of a maximum of one pick-up of fresh fish (mainly tilapias from Masese), on Monday and Thursday supply of smoked fish from Lake Kyoga limited to about 2000 pieces (300–400 kg) to avoid smuggling. When there is no smoked fish for sale on the Kenyan side, Kenyans may buy a maximum of 2 pieces per person.
There are about 10 smoked fish retailers and only one fresh fish retailer with his assistants. Fish marketing statistics are gathered by 1 AFDO and 1 FA in the same manner as Tororo market (however no scale is available here) and as for Tororo these are described in the monthly reports of the Regional Fisheries Officer, together with remarks on the monthly price fluctuations. Prices in Malaba market are very high : 450 Ug.Sh. per kg smoked fish (compared to 250 Ug.Sh. in Tororo market) and 200 Ug.Sh. per kg for fresh nile perch wich is however still cheaper than 1 kg of meat (300 Ug.Sh.). These high prices are mainly caused by the high demand and the low (authorized) supply of fish in this border market place.
