Alice Dusabimana
Never in recent time has fishes been this scarce. Englishmen say that early bird get worms and it is not far from the truth now days. Fishes are among the water species that are rich to proteins and vitamins but circumstances made it hard to move fishes from ponds to shops.
NIYIBIKORA Geoffrey a youth employed at Kacyiru in a fishes shop says he would be busy all week but due to Covid-19 pandemic, he is working one day a week. Due to scarcity of fishes Geoffrey open early on Thursday and fishes would be sold out by noon.
“We farm our own fishes some are still fingerings and the rest are eggs. We use ‘‘kareremba’’ (ponds) type of fish farming, and it is expensive to buy fishes food which makes the production dull. Rwanda produces few food and the rest were imported from Uganda and Zambia “Said Geoffrey.
NYINAWABERA Clementine that works at Batsinda market said, that location is crowded with buyers that like fishes very much
NYINAWABERA Clementine that works at Batsinda market said, that location is crowded with buyers that like fishes very much, which made it easy to sell and she only face the problem of lacking, more fishes to sell that most of the times she’d be buying wholesale for retailing purposes.
“Most of the times, I go to Nyabugogo to buy wholesale, fishes for retailing and clients doesn’t find me at the shop, they get frustrated. I’m on a small investment budget because of the coronavirus effects and not only that, but also wholesaling fishes is hard because we are sharing small productions.”Said Clementine.
DUSABEMUNGU Grégoire is an expert in fish farming at Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) Musanze station. He explained that most of fishes were imported from abroad countries such as Uganda and Zambia, and that because of the high demand of the market fishes became few in Rwandan markets.
“When the border between Uganda and Rwanda closed food of fishes, become expensive because normally Rwandan production wasn’t satisfying and it needed a support hand. Neither, did it become complicated from that fact only, because it gone worse when Covid-19 stroke and closed all boarders, whether on land or air ways and Zambia were importing fish food.”Grégoire said.
Currently a kilo-gramme of fish is between 2,300Rwf to 2,500Rwf, Thompson 3,000Rwf to 3,800Rwf per Kg of Tilapia and 5,000Rwf to 5,500Rwf per kg of fillet. Rwanda, targets to produce 112,000 tones of fish every year by 2024, according to the fourth strategic plan for agriculture transformation which runs from 2018 to 2024.
Rwanda has very good potential for increased fisheries productivity which if commercialized in approach and linked to sectors, such as tourism together with an enabling policy can stimulate increased fish production for both local and regional markets.
