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EAC plans labels to identify L. Victoria products
2007-03-27 09:35:46
By Adam Ihucha, Arusha,
The East African Community is intending to devise an eco-label for Lake Victoria products exported abroad, it has been learnt.
The EAC Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation (LVFO) is currently consulting fish processors and exporters from the second largest freshwater body in the world to contribute to the cost of conducting a full assessment.
``The lake being one ecosystem, one eco-label should be used for marketing its products abroad,`` the LVFO Executive Secretary, Thomas Maembe, told fish processors recently.
Maembe was sensitizing the fish processors to not only buy the eco-labelling idea, but also contribute to the process of devising the eco-label, which needs a colossal amount of money.
He said his organization was also urging fish processors and exporters to forge a strong partnership with groups of fishing communities surrounding the lake, dubbed Beach Management Units (BMUs), so as to ensure the sustainable management and utilization of the lake`s resources.
The Mwanza fishing communities boast of having 18 legally empowered BMUs, which are currently in the process of being integrated in the EAC organisation responsible for coordinating and managing fisheries` resources of the lake shared by Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
The LVFO executive committee, which is made up of heads of fisheries and fisheries research institutes, has made a weeklong tour of Lake Victoria last month to monitor implementation of decisions made by the council of ministers of strengthening and entrenching fisheries co-management and monitoring implementation of regional fisheries management plans.
While in Mwanza, the delegation visited Igombe fish landing site, Kirumba fish market, fish processing factories, Nyegezi fish laboratory and the Nyegezi Fisheries and Research Institute.
LVFO was formed in 1994 through a convention signed by EAC partner states to foster cooperation among the riparian states by harmonizing national measures and developing conservation and management measures.
Maembe, the retired Tanzanian Director of Fisheries, heads the executive secretariat that ensures that the work programme and activities of the organisation are implemented in accordance with the policy adopted by the council of ministers.
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