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20 years on: Fish exports jump to Shs635 billion
A man carries nile perch from Lake Victoria. Uganda mainly exports Nile Perch with European Union being the leading market destination. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
Bank of Uganda figures show that in 2018, Uganda’s export earnings from fish were the highest the country has received in the last 20 years, Dorothy Nakaweesi writes.
The fish industry is on the road to recovery after suffering setbacks a few years ago. These setbacks saw several factories close shop for lack of raw materials to process and export.
This was mainly caused by the poor fishing methods which nearly depleted the water resources from fish.
Records from Bank of Uganda show that in the calendar year ending 2018, Uganda’s export earnings from fish were the highest the country has received in the last 20 years.
The country exported fish worth $171 million (Shs635 billion) the highest revenue the country has ever earned from this commodity.
Highest volume
Records further indicate that the volumes in this calendar year were the highest at 24,545 metric tonnes in the last 10 years when the country exported 27,454 metric tonnes.
Over the last 15 years, the fisheries sector has played an important social and economic role in Uganda as the second largest foreign exchange earner, contributing 2.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 12 per cent to agricultural GDP.
This had declined because of immature and illegal fishing methods which depleted the resources.
Exporters’ view
Uganda Fish Processors and Exporters Association (Ufpea) deputy chief executive officer William Tibyasa in an interview Prosper magazine attributed the growth in trends to government’s intervention through deploying the Fisheries Protection Force who patrol the water resources for illegal fishermen.
“Because of this, the stocks have recovered at least by 30 per cent yet we had anticipated reaching this level in two years,” Mr Tibyasa said.
This has since seen factories which had closed shop reopen to business in a period between August 2018 and to date.
“We anticipate that other factories are going to open judging from our interactions. They shared that they are reorganising their facilities in preparation to resume business,” Mr Tibyasa shared.
The industry which had reduced to five processing companies down from over 20 firms has seen the number go up to 12 factories.
He said the factories which had remained in business were operating below capacity something which led the exports volumes and earnings to drop.
Uganda mainly exports Nile Perch with European Union being the leading market destination. Other market destinations are Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
Fish and gdp
Over the last 15 years, the fisheries sector has played an important social and economic role in Uganda as the second largest foreign exchange earner, contributing 2.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 12 per cent to agricultural GDP.
This had declined because of immature and illegal fishing methods which depleted the resources.
