By Bisola Adeyemo
Kenya’s Agriculture Cabinet Secretary, Peter Munya, has disclosed that the country has opted out of banning fish importation from China.
The Daily Nation quoted Munya saying, “The challenge we have in the country is insufficient local fish to satisfy the market, and hence you cannot ban imports that fill that gap that we are facing. You only ban when you raise the capacity to produce locally.”
The AfricaNews reported previously that Kenya’s agriculture committee had said it would ban fish imports from China, pointing to the availability of fish in local lakes and rivers and offshore.
The site also reported that local markets, facing a shortage of locally caught fish, had been selling imported Chinese fish and that the imported fish cost less.
Concern that inexpensive imported Chinese fish were undercutting the Kenyan fish industry was first raised in 2018, when President Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenyan government officials should figure out how to limit the imports.
A report compiled by the Global Fishing Watch tracker between May and August showed some 230 fishing vessels off Kenya, many of them foreign owned.
The site reported that most of the foreign-owned ships came from countries such as Italy and China.
China is “the world’s largest producer and consumer of seafood, and critics say its fleets engage in aggressive tactics as the nation tries to feed its 1.4 billion people,” VOA has reported. “Chinese ships have been accused of illegal and unreported fishing in many parts of the world – charges that China denies.”
Kenya has more than 600 kilometers of coastline on the Indian Ocean, and it claims 22 kilometers of territorial waters, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Beyond that, Kenya, like many other nations, claims an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 370 kilometers.
