KAMPALA: Fishermen and traders dealing in fishmaw have said the UPDF under the Fish Protection Unit are pushing them out of the business on the pretext that they are dealing in undersize fish maw.
Appearing before Parliament’s Agriculture Committee on Monday, the traders under their body, the Uganda Fishmaws Traders Association (UFTA), asked parliament to clearly define in law the ‘fish maw size’, which they say continues to create friction between the dealers and the Fish Protection Unit.
Led by the association chairman, John Kiyingi Ssamanya, the traders appealed for a clear definition on fish maws sizes, court, gazetted or authorized areas for purposes of buying and selling of fish maws.
He proposed that the Bill includes ‘fish maw size’ to mean any maw extracted from the recommended size of the Nile Perch.
Fish maw is a by-product extracted from swim bladders of Nile Perch, which is native to River Nile and Lake Albert in Uganda. The recommended mature Nile Perch in Uganda is 20 inches and above.
“The Fish Protection Unit and Uganda People’s Defence Forces-UPDF soldiers have been confiscating our fish maw claiming that it is undersize yet there is no gazetted size of fish maw. The sizes of fish maws differ within mature fish depending on the portion of water source it has been fished,” reads part of the Association document before the committee.
Simon Peter Musana, a fish maw trader together with others demonstrated fish maw weighing differently from five Nile Perch of the same size. The fish maw weighed between 20 grams to 40 grams.
The traders told MPs that their fish maw stock has been confiscated and several of their members imprisoned on allegations of having fish maw from non-gazetted sources.
Kiyingi says that gazetted sources have been misunderstood to only mean licensed processing factories yet there is fish maw bought from open markets like Busega, Kalerwe, Ntinda, Nakawa markets, small scale traders and other places having stalls for selling Nile perch with a license.
“If clause 89 of the Bill on traceability and source is to have an effect as law, then all areas licensed or a person authorized to gut fish for purpose of selling and buying fish and fisheries products, smoking, salting and sun-drying fish should be declared as gazetted area,” said Musana.
Sarah Babirye, a fish maw dealer in Katosi, Mukono district appealed to the committee to intervene so that their businesses can survive.
The Agriculture Committee of Parliament is currently considering the Fisheries and Aquaculture Bill, 2021. The Bill seeks to consolidate and reform the law relating to the management of fisheries products and aquaculture due to emerging issues in the regulation and management of the sector.
Janet Grace Okori-Moe, the Agriculture Committee Chairperson said that they will review the proposals by the fish maw traders together with others presented before them and make recommendations to Parliament.