Tanzania: Heavy post-harvest losses weigh on Lake Tanganyika fish value chain

BOATS cuts through choppy waters to a landing site at Kibirizi fish market in Kigoma Region. After an arduous fishing journey, tired fishermen are happy to finally making it to the landing site before the sun rises with a good haul of Lake Tanganyika’s luciolates stappersii known locally as migebuka along with sprat (stolothrissa tanganicae) and sardines (limnothrissa miodon). But, their hopes of making a fortune from their fish catch reach a blunt end at the market as not all the fish are fit for sale. Some of the migebuka are to be thrown away because they have already decayed and are unsellable demonstrating a serious problem of post-harvest losses in the fisheries sector that makes artisanal fishers, processors and traders wallow in poverty. The losses and waste can occur at varying intensities in different stages of the value chain. For the Lake Tanganyika perch, over half of fish catch may have decayed by the time the fishers return to the landing site due to poor fishing ...