Browsing: Fishing in Tanzania

• Tanzania fishing industry earns 10% of national foreign exchange. 
• FAO conducting sustainable fishing initiative in Tanzania.
• More than 4 million people earn their livelihoods from the fisheries sector.

With a stretch of coastline in excess of 1,400km and inland freshwater covering an estimated 54,300 square km, fishing is one of Tanzania’s major agricultural practices.

According to the Tanzania National Statistics Bureau, the fisheries sector contributes an average of 1.4 per cent to the GDP and earns about 10 per cent of the national foreign exchange.

To add on, more than four million people earn their livelihoods from the fisheries sector according to the country’s latest fisheries statistics.

Across the continet, Tanzania is one of the largest fishing nations according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the country is ranked in the top 10 countries having one of the largest total capture fisheries production.

FAO reports that the annual …

• In May, Tanzania took a bold but risky step by banning fishing on Lake Tanganyika for three months.
• In the Lake Victoria fishing zone, a new challenge, the smuggling of fish maws, is denying the government revenues.
• Statistics show that Tanzania is also experiencing reduced volumes of Nile Perch caught in Lake Victoria.

Tanzania’s water bodies alone hold plenty of economic activity potential, including the opportunity to harness the country’s billion-dollar fishing industry.

Records from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries show that the industry employs nearly 200,000 people directly. Another 4.5 million individuals benefit from the fishing industry’s value chain in Tanzania.

Tanzania’s fishing industry share of GDP

Tanzania’s fisheries contributed 1.8 per cent to the GDP last year and expanded by at least 2.5 per cent. The sector, despite displaying plenty of potential for creating jobs and powering the economy is facing a myriad of challenges. From Tanzania’s …

Nonetheless, production remains very low, and this is true for most other parts of the continent as well. Even though Africa has some of the world’s largest water bodies and is surrounded by the Atlantic on the West and the Indian Ocean on the East, the Mediterranean Sea in the North and the merging of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to the South, the continent contributes only a small percentage of the global fish supply. 

Tanzania is looking to change this fact. Following a presidential order to boost fish production, the country is embarking on a gigantic project to harvest 12 tonnes of fish per month.  Undertaken by the country’s National Service (military branch) the project is expected to also produce more than 200,000 fish seeds.…