NATIONAL FISH PRODUCTION
The fisheries sector in Tanzania plays a significant role in social and economic development by contributing to employment creation, revenue generation and food security – all of which are crucial for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.
The Tanzanian fishery is mainly artisanal with very few commercial/industrial vessels of purse seines and long liners owned by Distant Water Fishing Nations (DWFN), which operate under licensing agreements in our Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) targeting Tuna and Tuna like species. The artisanal fishery accounts for almost all the inland and marine water catches and consequently it is currently the most important fishery in the country.
In order to evaluate the contribution of the Fisheries Sector to the country’s economy and subsequently to the National GDP, The Fisheries Sector under the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development collects fisheries information annually by involving key stakeholders including Central Government authorities, local government authorities, fishing communities and NGOs. Collection of fisheries information requires both scientific methodologies including application of standardized data collection protocols, processing and dissemination of information to the relevant stakeholders. This document provides performance of Fisheries Sector in the Country for the year 2013.
The Sector supported a total of 202,654 people directly as fishers/farmers deriving their livelihood from various fishery resources in the country. Out of this number, 19,223 were fish farmers while 183,223 were fishers. The sector supports more than 4 million people engaged in related fisheries activities to include, processing, trading, fish transporting, net making and boat building. Fish production and value in the Country have indicated oscillating increased trend over the recent past years with the highest quantity of 375,534.6 metric tons of fish landed in 2005 (Figure 1). The contribution of the sector has been estimated at 1.4 % to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Under the year of review fish production was 367,854 metric tons valued at Tshs. 1,444,432,520 (Table 1), during the same period, the country earned over 6,117,769,193.74US $ million as foreign exchange from export of fish and fishery products.
FISHING EFFORT
About 183,223 fishers and 57,037 fishing vessels were recorded in 2013, since 2005 there has been a steady increase in the number of fishers, fishing vessels and landing sites in all water bodies (Table 2). The highest number of fishers and fishing vessels are found in Lake Victoria (101,250 fishers and 28,470 fishing vessels), others are Marine (36,321 fishers and 7,664 fishing vessels), Lake Tanganyika (26,612 fishers and 11,506 fishing vessels ), Lake Nyasa (5,550 fishers and 2,632 fishing vessels), Lake Rukwa (3,428 fishers and 1,786 fishing vessels), Mtera dam (2,369 fishers and 1,238 fishing vessels ), Nyumba ya mungu dam (786 fishers and 502 fishing vessels) and Minor water (6,907 fishers and 3,239 fishing vessels) (Table 3).
FISH CONSUMPTION
Fish and fishery products represent a very valuable source of protein and essential micronutrients for balanced nutrition and good health. Fish contributes to the world population’s intake of animal protein. Globally, fish provides about 3.0 billion people with almost 20 % of their intake of animal protein, and 4.3 billion people with about 15 % of such protein (FAO Statistics Year book 2010).
In 2013 per capita consumption was estimated about 7.7 kg/capita (Table 5).
Table 5: Estimated Fish Consumption from 2010-2013 Category 2010 2011 2012 2013
Population size
40,000,000.0
40,000,000.0
44,929,002.0
44,929,002.0
Imports of fish/fish products for direct human consumption(kg)
2,759,772.0
3,216,671.0
4,885,689.0
6,642,398.0
National fisheries production(kg) (capture production)
347,156,950.0
341,065,980.0
365,023,000.0
367,854,000.0
Aquaculture production (Tilapia &others)
222,000.0
3,628,500.0
2,977,500.0
Export of fish/fish production in kg
39,771,833.7
37,996,4
41,394,267.9
38,573,600.0
National fish consumption (kg)
310,144,888.3
306,228,217.7
332,142,921.1
338,900,298.0
Per capital fish consumption (kg)
7.8
7.7
7.57
7.7
1.3 FISHERIES POTENTIAL
It has been estimated that the country has the potential of harvesting about 2,537,444 metric tons of fish from its traditional sources of Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika, Nyasa, Rivers, Dams and the inshore marine waters (Table 7). The estimate covers only the freshwater and territorial waters (Table 6). (Source TAFIRI)
