Uganda’s fish export earnings
Jan 31, 2010
KAMPALA<br><br>Uganda’s fish exports declined 32% in 2009, heightening alarm over the country’s dwindling stocks, a government official said.
KAMPALA
Uganda’s fish exports declined 32% in 2009, heightening alarm over the country’s dwindling stocks, a government official said.
Fish is a key foreign exchange earner for east Africa’s third largest economy but production has been plummeting over the last few years as overfishing and soaring demand have overstretched the nation’s supply capacity.
Uganda exported about 15,600 tonnes of fish last year for $75.6m, a drop from 23,000 tonnes in 2008, which fetched $117m, according to statistics from the Fisheries Department. Total exports were about $1.7b.
Exports touched a high of 39,000 tonnes in 2005 and have since then been dropping annually.
“Stocks have continued to decrease in our water bodies and inevitably less and less fish is harvested and this trend is expected to continue until the measures government is undertaking start to have an impact,†Bulega Nzimbe, a fisheries officer, said late last week.
The government is mulling imposing a temporary fishing ban on some of the lakes that have suffered acute overfishing and whose stocks -- especially Uganda’s favored species of Tilapia and Nile Perch -- are depleted, he said.
Lake George, in south western Uganda, is one of the lakes being considered for a fishing moratorium.
“Some of the lakes are experiencing a drastic decline and those are the ones that need urgent action to permit breeding of species and recovery,†he said.
Numbers are also threatened by immature catches, mostly by impoverished lakeside communities whose activities are largely unregulated.
Soaring demand from regional economies like south Sudan and rising scarcity have driven up prices that have in turn spurred fish producers to strain the lakes’ supply capacity, particularly the nation's largest water body, Lake Victoria.
Reuters
Uganda’s fish exports declined 32% in 2009, heightening alarm over the country’s dwindling stocks, a government official said.
Fish is a key foreign exchange earner for east Africa’s third largest economy but production has been plummeting over the last few years as overfishing and soaring demand have overstretched the nation’s supply capacity.
Uganda exported about 15,600 tonnes of fish last year for $75.6m, a drop from 23,000 tonnes in 2008, which fetched $117m, according to statistics from the Fisheries Department. Total exports were about $1.7b.
Exports touched a high of 39,000 tonnes in 2005 and have since then been dropping annually.
“Stocks have continued to decrease in our water bodies and inevitably less and less fish is harvested and this trend is expected to continue until the measures government is undertaking start to have an impact,†Bulega Nzimbe, a fisheries officer, said late last week.
The government is mulling imposing a temporary fishing ban on some of the lakes that have suffered acute overfishing and whose stocks -- especially Uganda’s favored species of Tilapia and Nile Perch -- are depleted, he said.
Lake George, in south western Uganda, is one of the lakes being considered for a fishing moratorium.
“Some of the lakes are experiencing a drastic decline and those are the ones that need urgent action to permit breeding of species and recovery,†he said.
Numbers are also threatened by immature catches, mostly by impoverished lakeside communities whose activities are largely unregulated.
Soaring demand from regional economies like south Sudan and rising scarcity have driven up prices that have in turn spurred fish producers to strain the lakes’ supply capacity, particularly the nation's largest water body, Lake Victoria.
Reuters