“We are so happy with our FTT-Thiaroye ovens that we wish women fish operators throughout the African continent could take advantage of the same benefits,” said Micheline Dion, President of the Côte d'Ivoire National Union of Women in Fisheries Societies, in June 2014, in an interview during a headquarters-based committee on fisheries.

Three years later, not only has the FTT-Thiaroye come a long way, with about 12 African countries[1] utilising the new fish processing technique, but it has also started transforming lives in Asia, more precisely in Sri Lanka.

The FTT-Thiaroye is a fish smoking and drying technology, which FAO designed back in 2008 in order to improve fuel-efficiency by encapsulating heat and smoke. As a result small-scale female fish processors across Africa have significantly increased their income within a responsive market. They have reduced drudgery, decreased costs of smoking operations, and cut down on post-harvest fish losses. Furthermore, this new technology has improved quality and safety of finished products, as well as food security and nutrition.

In addition, beneficiary communities no longer have to worry about health issues, which resulted from traditional smoking techniques. These include eye and skin irritations, respiratory diseases and loss of fingerprints. FTT-Thiaroye techniques are no longer used only in Africa, but increasingly also in Asia.

“My life has really changed since we got the FTT-Thiaroye technique in our area,” said Theivarmallar from the Batticaloa district in Sri Lanka. This 50-year-old woman is the head of the family, with three daughters, two of whom still go to school. She makes a living from fish smoking. “The first thing I noticed about FTT is that it helps save time. Before, when I used the old method of putting iron mesh on bricks to smoke the fish on direct fire, I spent a total of 12 hours over two consecutive days in drying and smoking the fish. With the new technique it only takes me around six hours, which gives me plenty of time to take care of my children and do household chores,” she said.

In the Batticaloa district, around 150 families are engaged in fish-smoking activities, with an annual average production amounting to 55 tonnes. Yet, the prevailing practice is still a traditional smoking system, in which case the processing area is open, which often leads to spoilage due to rain and external contamination. Furthermore, the presence of strong winds lengthens the process and often results in uninviting products that be sold only for little money.

Devamalar, who also smokes fish for a living, is 50 years old, mother of four and head of the family. “With the traditional method, our smoked fish is of poor quality, and is sold at LKR 600-750 per kilo (approximately the equivalent of USD 4 to 5). This is a very low price. The money we earn is not even enough to send our children to school,” she commented. 

In June 2017, an EU-funded project implemented in partnership with UN institutions – the European Union Support to District Development Programme (EU-SDDP) – gave FAO an opportunity to address critical challenges to the development of inland fisheries in Sri Lanka. The construction of FTT-Thiaroye ovens, the first in Asia, started in Unnichchai, Batticaloa. The project was very well-received by the beneficiary fishing community.

Theivarmallar, for instance, expressed her appreciation and added with a timid smile, “Before, I could only process 16 to 40 kilos of fish per day, but with the FTT, I can smoke up to 100 kilos per day. Also, the cost of the necessary firewood is lower. I now pay LKR 15 per kilo of fish (USD 0.09), whereas before, I used to pay LKR 50 (USD 0.32).”

As part of the EU-SDDP project, inland fisheries in Sri Lanka is being developed by building capacity of fisheries communities and adopting sustainable co-management practices.

“The introduction of the FTT-Thiaroye is part of our efforts to make the fish value chain in Sri Lanka more productive and profitable for the poorest families,” says Nina Brandstrup, FAOR in Sri Lanka and Maldives. “The new technology needs to be further promoted in other parts of the country. This requires that guidelines are prepared in local languages and disseminated, and that a cadre of trained extension workers are on-hand to provide advice on the construction and the use of the ovens. FAO hopes to be able to facilitate this process in the near future.”

The introduction of FTT-Thiaroye in the Batticaloa district has undeniably been a success. Beneficiaries like Theivarmallar and her family are reaping benefits from this new technology. In response to numerous requests from other fish processors in the surrounding areas, FAO is in the process of constructing eight additional units of FTT-Thiaroye within the framework of the EU-SDDP project. In addition to technical trainings on fish quality improvement and packaging provided to fishing communities, FAO is also promoting a market-oriented approach to facilitate the expansion of the FTT-Thiaroye. The aim is to target buyers from the capital city Colombo, as they have a huge and continuous demand for smoked fish.

“The successful introduction of this technique is an outstanding achievement,” explains Yvette Diei Ouadi, headquarters-based Fishery Officer, who coordinates the development programme and the dissemination of the FTT-Thiaroye technique. “This is a good entry point to the Asian continent, which is known to lead on the global smoked fish production (accounting for 42 percent), with lots of commonalities with Africa, as confirmed by the global mapping of fish smoking systems commissioned in 2016. This should, of course, also ease the next stage of streamlining the national regulatory framework for a better control of the hazards linked to traditional smoking.”

The construction of an FTT-Thiaroye oven, as in the case of Batticaloa, where they had to start from the scratch, amounts to approximately USD 1500. Because such cost is perceived as relative expensive by small-scale fishing communities, the expansion of the technology usually relies on  well-tailored micro-finance support from the government, development institutions, NGOs or the private sector.