Let’s classify Nile Perch maws as separate export
What you need to know:
- In recent times none for me beats the profit-motivated proposal by the fish exporters that the consumption of meats from our Nile perch be banned for Ugandans in their own country.
I have heard some preposterous suggestions in my life, most of them motivated by one narrow interest or another.
In recent times none for me beats the profit-motivated proposal by the fish exporters that the consumption of meats from our Nile perch be banned for Ugandans in their own country.
That all Nile perch fished from Ugandan waters should be reserved for export. And why: because the exporters want to benefit from the “fish maws” in the Nile perch that are very highly priced in export markets.
What cheek? If the proposal were to be carried (and I hope that for once our politicians will see beyond their collective nose and reject it) it would mean that Ugandans including the fishermen whose toil results in the exporters’ huge profits would need to travel to some foreign country in order to eat the highly nutritious flesh of that particular species.
That is because it would be illegal to slaughter the Nile perch outside of exporters’ factories; to sell its meat in Nakasero Market; or consume its meat in Uganda!
But there is always a silver lining to everything. The fish processors/exporters have unwittingly revealed that it is not the edible fish fillet they treasure so much but the maws contained therein.
The whole thing about the consumption of the flesh is that it results in either the maws being damaged or not being readily and cheaply available to them. This is what fish processors and exporters should be proposing, but since they dare not, I will.
The government should classify the Nile perch maws as a separate export product distinct from fish fillet if they have not already done so. And to avoid concealment customs officers should maintain a presence to ensure the quantity of harvested maws is monitored.
The government should further ascertain the unit value of the maws in foreign export markets in order to have a reasonably accurate estimate of the export value and hence exporters’ earned revenues for purposes of assessing and collecting income tax.
The government should thus reject totally the aforementioned selfish proposal by fish exporters and instead encourage Ugandans to consume more and more of their God-given resource and benefit from the nutritional value of the Nile perch.
HGK Nyakoojo
Buziga, Kampala.
