Despite government efforts to improve fishing facilities, market centres and landing sites across Lake Victoria, a new study has exposed uncertainties associated with the setting of fish prices that affect the wellbeing of artisanal fishers.
Upon arrival at the landing site, artisanal fishers normally sell their catch to middlemen at a landing price, which is termed exploitative compared to what the agents earn from traders.
The study, dubbed ‘Two-stage hedonic analysis of fish attributes around Lake Victoria,’ was conducted by Mr Damian Sambuo and Dr Kitala Malamsha, from Moshi Co-operative University (Mocu) in collaboration with Dr Stephen Kirama from the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).
The researchers believe that artisanal fishermen face various challenges which hinder them from meeting the best landing price.
These include the agent’s exploitation of fishermen; the imbalance of negotiation power; limited access to production facilities; idiosyncratic preferences; lack of improved skills; and the use of modern technology.
“The environment fishermen operate in does not support the market being structured, and this has been influenced by players (agents, middlemen, buyers, and marching guys),” the report reads in part.
“As a result, the conduct of players has significant consequences in determining landing price, which leads to inferior performance, thus leading to fish pricing not thriving. Moreover, the landing price could be easily determined if the fishermen decided to set a price as per input costs,” the report added.
On the other hand, since the Lake Victoria fishery market is dominated by middlemen (buyers) while considering their relationship with fishermen, a decrease in input prices is expected, as buyers tend to maximize profits.
The study suggested that with a poor market structure, conduct, and performance, the increase of buyers does not support the demand theory because of collusion. The journal called on policy makers to restructure methods for determining fish prices and price information policies and provide skills to fishermen on various selling tactics that achieve specific market results at their landing centres.
Speaking recently in Mwanza, the chairperson of the country’s fishermen’s association, Bakari Kadabi, was of the view that the government needed not only to monitor the sector closely but also invest massively as the sector seemed to be left in the hands of fishermen.
“Of course, much has been done, but still, fishermen do not benefit from their toil. Mind you, fish is a perishable good. So, sometimes, you are forced to sell it so that you may not incur a huge loss,” he noted.
“It is surprising that a cotton farmer contributes to the national GDP massively compared with what the fishing sector contributes, yet cotton is a seasonal crop while fishing is done every given day,” he added.
According to him, price setting is a challenge for fishermen as they do not have the mandate for it. He felt there was a need for an empowerment programme for fishermen as most of them conducted their business with little knowledge regarding marketing.