Nairobi — Tanzania's export of fish fillet from Lake Victoria is facing a bleak future due to a sharp decline of the fish population in the lake. This has been worsened by an oversupply to the European Union market.

A report by authorities in Mwanza indicate that revenues from fish fillet exports in Tanzania have dropped from Tsh194 billion ($161.6 million) in 2004 to Tsh183 billion ($152. 5 million) last year.

The report, which was released last week, says about 80 per cent of the revenues are from fresh fillet exports, while 20 per cent is from exporting frozen fillet.

In 2004, the total tonnage of exported Nile perch - popular in the European Union countries - was 71,000, but fell to 63,000 tonnes last year. Apart from a sharp decline of fish population, which is caused by poor and illegal fishing methods, oversupply of other species, sold at lower prices to the European market since in 2004, have affected Nile perch fillet prices.

The Nile perch, which was first introduced in Lake Victoria in 1960, but gained prominence 25 years later, is currently facing strong competition from basa catfish, which is oversupplied to the EU market.

Another report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation Globefish issued in December 2005 says that although Tanzania is seen as a dominant exporter of Nile Perch to the EU, most of the additional quantity of the catch entering that market in 2004 came from Uganda.

Unlike Kenya and Uganda, which have seven and 15 registered fish processing and exporting companies respectively, Tanzania has only five processing plants.

Tanzania, which accounts for 60 per cent of fish fillet exports to the EU, had faced an export ban imposed by EU on East African states in 1999.

It was, however, the first to comply with the requirements and by 2003, it had an average export of Nile perch fillet worth Euro100 million ($120 million).

Uganda and Kenya has export value quarters of 30 and 10 per cent respectively.

According to reports, since the Nile perch was introduced to Lake Victoria, it has been exploited commercially besides have a damaging effect on local fish, causing the extinction of several hundred native species.

The fish's introduction to Lake Victoria, while ecologically catastrophic, has been of short-term benefit to large fishing companies around the area. The long-term benefit is less clear, as overfishing is now reducing Nile Perch populations.