Ray of hope for Kibuyuni fishermen as Chinese firm offers deep sea fishing help

 

Huawen Food (Kenya) EPZ Limited

Tobias Alhamis has been fishing anchovies in Kibuyuni village of Shimoni, Kwale county for over 25 years now.

However, the activity is no longer as lucrative as once envisaged.

Although there was no guarantee of catching anchovies when they ventured into the sea in his younger days, Alhamis had high hopes when he started fishing .

That is what kept him going even when others quit.

On some days, they would catch nothing, but on others, their venture would yield 80kg of anchovies.

Today, although he uses a mechanised boat, it does not have the capacity to venture into the deep seas.

“Anchovies are mostly found in the deep seas, which require big boats with special equipment. Our vessels can’t go there, especially when the sea is rough,” Alhamis says.

The fisherman, in his late 60s, says the fish are not seasonal, as many people think.

Sometimes, they do not venture into the shores, where most fishermen cast their nets, hence the need for vessels that can reach the deep seas. 

The entrance of Huawen Food (Kenya) EPZ Limited in 2019 changed the fishermen’s fortunes. 

“Before them, the government did not recognise us as anchovy fishermen or anchovy fishing,” Alhamis says.

This made it difficult to get any help from the government.

Thanks to the Chinese firm, the fishermen were recognised and even received some grants from the government.

The firm helped stabilise the fish prices too, although this could be better, he says. 

They used to sell anchovies to middle men and individuals at Sh60.

Currently, fishermen sell anchovies directly to Huawen Food Limited.

“But with the current inflation, we see the Sh80 price as insufficient. We would like the price to go up to at least Sh120 per kilo,” Alhamis says.

Omar Salim, a former anchovy fisherman, says he quit the industry after being overwhelmed by the challenges.

The cost of hiring a boat and venturing into the sea only to come back empty-handed or, on lucky days, with Sh3,000 worth of fish, was unsustainable.

“I started anchovy fishing using fibre boats. I used to hire a boat for Sh1,000 a day, buy 20 litres of fuel at then Sh200, making it Sh4,000 a day on fuel.

“If you go into the sea for four or five straight days and come back with nothing, that is a loss of about Sh25,000,” he says.

Salim opted for octopuses instead, but says with support, anchovy fishing can be a worthwhile venture. 

He called for the government to work with the Chinese firm, which would see them increase the buying price. 

Empowering fishermen so they can venture into the deep seas to catch more anchovies would also improve the industry. 

The Chinese firm could also train fishermen on deep sea fishing and allow them to use their bigger, mechanised boats.

“In fact, if they agree to buy anchovies at Sh120 per kilo, it would work for me. I will go back into the sea for them,” Salim says.

Salim’s sentiment was echoed by Huawen Food finance manager Boxi Wang.

There are plans to train more local fishermen on mechanised fishing in the deep sea, Wang said. 

The firm is in the process of acquiring four new bigger boats which will be fitted with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and fish finders.

Fish finders are used to locate the anchovies and through GPRS, fishermen can communicate with each other.

“After acquiring the boats, we will bring in captains from China and Vietnam to train the locals then go back. Because we need a lot of anchovies for our operations,” Wang says.

Although the factory has a capacity for 200 tonnes of anchovies a day, they only handle five tonnes a day.

This is because the fishers cannot venture into the deep seas where the anchovies are aplenty.

“The local fishermen catch very few anchovies because they don’t have huge machines and their technologies are very low,” Wang said.

The soon-to-be-acquired new boats will help solve this problem.

The boats, which will be venturing up to 50 nautical miles into the sea, are expected to start operations in August.

The low volumes of fish caught has also affected the company’s  operations.  

Asha Juma, the company’s Human Resource manager, says 23 workers are currently in employment due to lack of anchovies.

“Should we be operating at optimal levels, we should be having at least 500 workers,” Juma says.

The company hires extra manpower, having 300 workers when at normal operation.

“There is a day we got 25 tonnes and we had to hire 150 workers to help us process the anchovies for export,” she says.

Most of their produce is sold to China, where there is a huge market.

There are two types of anchovies, silver and white.

Silver anchovies do not have a market as compared to the white.

In Kenya, packaged anchovies go for Sh350 per kilogram. 

Huawen Food, the only company that processes the fish in Kenya, deals with white anchovies, which are larger.

Juma says the only competition they have is from “mama samaki” who also sell the fish locally.

“The difference is we process ours and thus the end product is cleaner and without blemish,” she says.

Sometimes the nets also trap other types of fish. These are not thrown away.

“They are processed and sold locally,” Juma says.

The factory has also had to deal with frequent electricity outages, negatively affecting the power-intensive operations.

the factory requires about 1,000 kilovolts to operate the machines, but get only 352 kilovolts instead.

“What we get is also not consistent. We can go for up to two weeks without power,” she says.

However Kenya Power has agreed to install a transformer that will serve the factory almost exclusively.

BY BRIAN OTIENO