RUKWA (Tanzania), Feb 4 (NNN-DAILYNEWS) — LAKE Tanganyika’s fish production has surged threefold following the lifting of a three-month ban imposed last May, heralding a new chapter for the region’s fishing industry.
Fish production on the Tanzanian side has risen to an average of 15,000 tonnes per month, up from 4,700 tonnes per month in 2023.
Fishing activities resumed in mid-September and the government’s ban, aimed at protecting and rejuvenating the lake’s fish resources, has paid off handsomely.
The Minister for Fisheries and Livestock, Dr Ashantu Kijaji, said the fishing activities were suspended mid last May and resumed mid-September last year paid off as production went up threefold.
“The government’s decision to suspend fishing for three months on Lake Tanganyika has yielded positive results,” said Dr Kijaji, following his tour of Alpha Tanganyika Flavour, a local fish firm specialising in exports with an investment of 8.0bn/-.
The firm is based in Sumbawanga town in Rukwa. Alpha Tanganyika Flavour, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Alpha Nondo, said that his firm halted production in 2022 due to a shortage of fish, which is a key raw material for processing fish products.
“The firm was founded in 2021 and ran for a year before operations were halted in 2022 and have remained suspended ever since,” he said.
On top of limited raw material, the firm is battling for the climate change issue that resulted into submerging of its collecting centres in Rukwa and Kigoma regions along Lake Tanganyika.
“The initiative of opening collection centres was an effort to provide more domestic market opportunities to local fishers along the lake, but are underwater, “ Nondo said.
Nondo said that two collection centres at Kipili in Nkasi District, Rukwa and Mgambo in Kigoma, have wholly submerged.
Additionally, the firm was planning to establish more centres at Wampembe and Kasanga in Nkasi and Kalambo Districts in Rukwa, as well as two more in Kigoma but stopped due raising water challenges.
“We have received an order to export 30 containers of fish from Lake Tanganyika, so the demand is significant, but the collection is currently low. “We need to build more centres,” Nondo said adding that the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries is supporting the initiative, which aims to address the challenge of low fish collection for export.
Initially, the firm was exporting to the US supply in 20 states markets. The firm had also secured new markets in Canada and the European Union.
“Initially, we faced challenges, but after understanding consumer needs, we made improvements and successfully entered the market,” he said.
Lake Tanganyika, the African Great Lake and the deepest lake in Africa, is also the world’s longest freshwater lake. In 2017, the Global Nature Fund declared Lake Tanganyika as the year’s ‘most threatened’ lake due to overfishing, pollution and climate change.
In the Burundian part of the lake, fish production dropped by 25 per cent from 20,000 tonnes in 1995 to 15,000 tonnes in 2011.
Currently, the fisheries sector account for 1.7 per cent of the country’s GDP, whereas the goal is to arrive at 10 per cent comes the year 2030.
Also, the country produces 500,000 tonnes of fish annually and the goal is to reach 600,000 tonnes in the next financial year. Adam Pesambili, a fisherman from KasangaLusambo village, praised the three-month suspension, stating that it led to increased fish yields.
“After the lifting of the ban, I sold fresh fish worth over 5.0m/- for the first time in 25 years of my fishing. “Even before fishing activities officially resumed, larger fish and sardines were already abundant.
“We are now seeing more substantial catches, which greatly benefit those of us who rely entirely on fishing for our livelihood,” he said.
The suspension of fishing activities on Lake Tanganyika was a joint decision by Tanzania and its neighbouring countries Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia under the Lake Tanganyika Authority, aimed at ensuring the sustainable management of fishing in the lake and its basin. — NNN-DAILYNEWS
