State defends China fish, cites huge gap in supply

The government has defended importation of fish from China saying it was meant to address shortage being experienced locally.

“It is about supply and demand,” Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said.

Kenyan fishermen and traders have decried flooding of the local market with fish from China, adversely affecting business for suppliers.

Fish from the Asian nation is cheaper compared to local harvests. Tilapia from China trades at Sh150 to Sh300 a kilo, while the Kenyan variety goes for Sh400, a piece.

Nile Perch fetches Sh320 a kilo.

The CS said that demand for fish in the country was huge and the market wide open for everyone.

“We are not sufficient, there is a gap in supply which the Chinese fish import is filling. The issue is not whether they are flooding our market but their competitiveness," said Mr Kiunjuri in an interview with Nation on the sidelines of the tea auction at the East African Tea Traders Association premise.

Mr Kiunjuri also decried the fact that Kenya has not exploited its sea-based resources known as the blue economy.

In 2016, President Uhuru Kenyatta declared war on illegal fishing by foreign ships in Kenya’s Economic Exclusive Zone in the Indian Ocean saying it robs the country of Sh10 billion annually.

Kenya’s Indian Ocean waters have the potential to produce 300,000 tonnes of fish annually valued at about Sh75 billion.