Fish Market Prices Rise as Fish Imports From China Reduces

The value of fish imports from China reduced significantly by 31% (Ksh 7M) in 2020 mainly because of Covid-19 trade disruptions. This decline in fish imports prompted local fish traders to increase their fish prices by 11% to Ksh 175 per kilo in 2020 compared to Ksh 158 per kilo back in 2019.

The industry data shows that the value of all the China imported commodities dropped from Ksh 2.2B in 2019 to Ksh 1.5B last year. This was the first-ever recorded decline in 5 years. There has been a lot of uproar from local fish traders and fishermen due to the number of fish being imported from China increasing.

The director of fisheries, Daniel Mwangi, however, stated that Kenya cannot afford to sustain the fish demand while relying on local fisheries because of the decrease in volume of Lake Victoria, which is the main source of fish in the country.

Lake Victoria’s water volume has been significantly dropping over the years with the records indicating that there has been a reduction from 90,000 to 86,000 metric tonnes last year.

Mr. Mwangi has stated that the decline in imported fish has been caused by a decrease in business activities worldwide to the pandemic.

“Generally, there was a decline in global trade last year and the fish industry was not spared as shown by the drop that we recorded from China in the review period”, he said.

China fish, especially tilapia goes for Ksh 250 per kilo compared to local tilapia which goes for Ksh 350 and Ksh 400 depending on the size thus making china fish cheaper.

“We are no longer competing with China fish at the moment because of the absence of Chinese fish here. All of the stocks that we are selling now are sourced from Lake Victoria and Lake Naivasha”, the Gikomba fish traders chairman, Paul Oyimba said.

By Joy Ngoiri