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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Author(s)
Happy Mussa1, Emmanuel Kaunda1, Sloans Chimatiro2, Keagan Kakwasha2, Lisungu Banda3, Bonface Nankwenya3 and Jabulani Nyengere1
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DOI:10.17265/2161-6264/2017.05.009
Affiliation(s)
1. Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Science, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Bunda Campus, Lilongwe 219, Malawi
2. WorldFish Center, Zambia Office, Katima Mulilo Road, Lusaka 51289, Zambia
3. Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Bunda Campus, Lilongwe 219, Malawi
ABSTRACT
Intra-regional fish trade has potential in
addressing the region’s food and nutrition insecurity, as well as poverty
reduction, by enabling movement
of fish from countries of surplus to those with deficit. However, informal fish
trade, just like all informal economic activities, has been overlooked and
neglected in many national and regional policies, leading to obscurity of such
an important part of the fisheries sector. This study examined the situation in the
cross-border informal fish
trade in order to deepen our understanding about the traders, the factors
influencing the traders to use informal trade channels, the structure of the
products traded and the challenges traders face, as well as propose policy direction to enhance the cross-border fish
trade in the Southern Africa region. The study revealed that female traders dominated
informal fish trade. In both Malawi and Zambia, an estimated 45,285.52 metric tonnes of fish valued at 82.14 million dollars
and 102,263.9 metric tonnes of fish valued at
3.3 million dollars were informally traded. The key species involved in informal
cross-border trade in Malawi and Zambia were the small pelagics, usipa
(Engraulicypris sardella) from Lake Malawi and dagaa (Rastrineobola
argentea) from Lake Tanganyika, respectively. It emerged from focus group discussions with informal
fish traders and key informants’ interviews with border post fish inspection
and revenue collection officials that traders are put off by the cross-border
regulations. Therefore, it is important for countries in the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) region to regularize and formalize cross-border trade,
particularly in small pelagic fish species, since this species plays a great
role in the livelihoods, food and nutrition security of many people in the
region, especially the rural and urban poor. It is also important for
governments to support processors and traders to improve the quality of fish
being traded, and decentralize
issuing of the import/export certificates and other cross-border support
documents. Lastly, there is a need to establish informal
fish trade monitoring systems to adequately quantify the volumes traded.
KEYWORDS
Informal fish trade, small pelagic species, Malawi, Zambia.
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