no one is perfect, try not to be so hard on yourself. We can all reform,
so I live in hope -g-
Actually I am finding this fish subject interesting. I am only posting about 1 in 5 that I read.
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allafrica.com
EU Move On Kenyan Fish Hailed
The East African Standard (Nairobi)
January 22, 2004
Posted to the web January 22, 2004
Haroun Wandalo
Nairobi
The multi-billion fish industry is set for a major boost following the lifting of the ban on fish exports to the European Union.
Yesterday, stakeholders in the fish sub-sector were confident that the lucrative industry was destined for better days with access to the European market.
On Monday, Mr Joseph Munyao, the Minister of Livestock and Fisheries, announced that the European Union (EU) had finally lifted the four-year ban on Kenyan fish exports. The industry earns the exchequer about Sh6 billion annually. Munyao said the figure is expected to rise to Sh16 billion.
Key fish processors around Lake Victoria hailed the EU gesture as positive. They expressed optimism that access to the European market would lead to a turn-around in their businesses and the entire fishing sector.
A manager at Kisumu's Afro Meat and Fish Processors, Mr Edwin Owuor, described the move as a New Year's gift to the industry.
Owuor said many jobs had been lost as a result of poor trading follwing the exports ban and expressed optimism that the many of the lost jobs would be recovered.
"Before the ban, our company produced between 100 and 200 tonnes of fish daily. This had reduced to an average of 40 tonnes," Owuor said.
A spokesman of the African Sea Foods Company, Mr Devender Rao, also welcomed the lifting of the exports ban. He said his company had retained all employees despite the difficulties caused by the ban.
Rao said the company had found alternative markets in, Hong Kong and Japan during the period of the ban.
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here was the original problem..
nationaudio.com
Business
Monday, December 18, 2000
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Will Kenya Let Go EU Fish Market Again?
By VITALIS OMONDI
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
DESPITE THE jubilation that greeted the lifting of a costly 20-month-long ban on Kenya's fish exports to the European Union last month, Kenyan fish exporters will have to wait a little longer before they can resume exporting to this lucrative market.
The EU's Standing Veterinary Committee (SVC), which monitors all foodstuffs entering the 15-member trading bloc, in a resolution passed on December 1 and conveyed to Kenya's embassy in Brussels five days later, asked the country to insert a specific clause in the health certificates accompanying any consignment of fishery products to the EU as a guarantee of the safety of the product.
The clause, that the EU wants added to the health certificate reads: "The official inspector [in this case Kenya's Fisheries Department] hereby certifies that the fishery products specified above were produced under a system of monitoring checks and the results of these checks are satisfactory."
While Kenya is yet to meet this new condition, both Uganda and Tanzania have satisfied it.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Prof Shem Migot-Adhola, said it would take some time before the country's fish processors could export to the EU.
"It will take a little time before we export again," he told The EastAfrican. "They (EU) want us to formalise. That is not a big deal. The fact is, we have met the standards and have a competent authority to which they have given the nod".
A senior official in the Fisheries Department said the additional clause would have to be worked through the Attorney-General's Office before it eventually found its way into the health certificates.
"It does not have to be subjected to parliamentary procedures but the Attorney-General has to come in," said Mr Johnson Kariuki, an assistant director at the Fisheries Department. "The Minister of Agriculture can just write to the AG and the clause can be introduced as subsidiary legislation."
In a dispatch to Kenya's embassy in Belgium, SVC decreed that it would be necessary to subject all fish caught in Lake Victoria to appropriate checking to ensure that they were healthy. Such checks, said the committee, must be capable of detecting, in particular, the presence of pesticides.
At stake for Kenyan fish processors and exporters is a market of about 18,000 tonnes of fish, which earns the country over Ksh4 billion ($51 million) every year.
An industry source expressed optimism that the authorities would act before the end of December to enable them to resume fish exports to the EU which before the ban accounted for 70 per cent of all exports.
The EU banned exports of fish from the three East African countries in March after reports of alleged poisoning of fish in Lake Victoria. After a series of inspection visits by the SVC and guarantees from the riparian states, the ban was eventually lifted. Kenya was the last of the three to have the ban lifted.
On December 5, the Kenya Fish Processors and Exporters Association (AFIPEK) launched a code of Good Manufacturing Practise (GMP) for handling and processing fish and fishery products in Kenya in what was seen as a move towards consolidating the gains the industry had made since the lifting of the ban on November 23.
It followed the enactment of a subsidiary legislation, Fisheries (Quality Assurance) Regulation in August.
According to AFIPEK secretary general Mr James Kimonye, the launch of the GMP in Kenya, which came six months after Uganda launched its GMP in May, is intended to further harmonise policies on surveillance, monitoring and processing standards in the three East African states. Fish processing establishments in the region not only operate under similar conditions, a number of fish processing factories based in Kenya have subsidiaries in Uganda and Tanzania.
Mr Kimonye said that the industry was working towards harmonising the GMPs of the three countries so that thorny issues like overfishing, harvesting of young fish and trawling could be easily sorted out.
To ensure that the sanitary standards are strictly adhered to, members of AFIPEK are already contributing funds to commence fencing of the beaches and putting up of basic sanitary facilities. Of the nine landing beaches in Kenya, four have already been fenced.
Kenya produces about 170,000 tonnes of fish and fishery products per year valued at Ksh6.5 billion ($83 million). Over 120,000 tonnes (70 per cent) of the total annual catch goes to the export-based fish processing industries.
Nile Perch fillets constitute over 80 per cent of exports. Lake Victoria contributes 92 per cent of these the country's total annual fish catch.
Meanwhile, Ugandan fishermen have asked the government to grant them tax waivers on fishing equipment and also to allow them to have a representative on the agricultural committee.
The committee discusses and addresses issues affecting the agriculture sector, but fishermen think the committee has neglected them. The government is yet to respond to those requests.
Fishermen meeting during the World Fisheries Day held November 21 at the Kasenyi landing site near Kampala, said the government was interested only in collecting taxes while it contnued to ignore their plight.
"Our fishing conditions are hard but the government has never come to our rescue," said Mr Waggwa Kisa, a fisherman from a landing site on Lake Kioga. He said this was why the fishermen had come together to ask for concessions from the government.
Other fishermen who attended the meeting said they were encountering problems in buying fishing equipment, since "it is now too expensive." They attributed this to high taxes on such equipment as boat engines and fishing nets. |
