adminIMPORTS of kapenta fish from Mozambique and Tanzania are causing a fluctuation in prices on the local market, amid reports that there was overfishing in the Lake Kariba, according to fishermen in the resort town.
In an interview with Sunday Business, Mr Kamuseri Magora said kapenta fishers were forced to reduce the price of kapenta from $6/ kilogramme to $4,50/kilogramme last year and the previous year but the price picked up around March to July this year, although it has since fallen due to imports flooding the market.
“These imports have affected the traditional market of Kariba, our prices are subdued. Before these imports became an issue, prices used to respond to market demand,” said Mr Magora.
Mr Magora said local fish traders were finding it difficult to compete with imported fish because fishing in Zimbabwe was generally expensive and that they had to pay exorbitant amounts to the National Parks Authority for fishing permits.
He said the only way fish traders would survive was if Government intervened and protected local traders.
Two weeks ago, Sunday News carried a story on a Zimbabwe/Zambia kapenta fish war where Zimbabwean fishermen were accusing the northern neighbours of crossing into their territorial waters to poach kapenta fish leading to an alarming decline of stocks in the lake. According to reports, the fight was so bitter that it was threatening to turn violent.
Mr Magora and other investors in the kapenta industry in Kariba said there was overfishing in Lake Kariba hence production was being affected.
“There are too many fishing units on the lake. According to regulations, Zimbabwe has about 400 registered boats but due to corruption there are more maybe about 600 and then Zambia has more than 2 100 fishing units,” said one trader who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Environment, Water and Climate Minister Saviour Kasukuwere is on record saying the issue was unscrupulous fishing by some operators and the uneven numbers of fishing rigs between the two countries and that this was an urgent matter which must be addressed because the problem was overfishing.Under a 1999 agreement, Zimbabwe had the right to 55 percent of the boats on the lake, whose kapenta population could support 500 rigs.
In 1999 there was a combined total of 605 rigs, according to a research paper by Ms Loveness Madamombe of the Norwegian College of Fishery Science at the University of Tromso. Zambia had 185 licensed boats in 2000, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said.
The kapenta, which is attracted using fluorescent lights then scooped up in round nets, is dried and sold in both countries as a cheap source of protein.
Online Reporter