A team from the Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (KEPROBA) is in Turkana meeting various stakeholders in the blue economy.

The week-long exercise dubbed ‘The Blue Economy Caucas on Export Programme in Turkana County’ which runs from June 7-11, 2022, will focus on engaging various stakeholders key in the fisheries industry. These stakeholders include the government, regulators, and fish traders.

Fish mongers cleaning their day's harvest at Lodwar fish market in Turkana

“The engagement in Turkana is an exploratory and information gathering mission to explore opportunities available for investment in the blue economy which includes marine and inland water bodies. There is a Blue Economy Conference in Portugal from June 27-29, 2022, and KEPROBA is exploring bankable proposals to present for consideration,” says Peter Ochieng, ag. Director, Research and Innovations, KEPROBA. “At the end of this exercise, we will consolidate projects from the blue economy and develop costed investment programmes and projects.”

Turkana has a big potential in aquatic fish enough for local consumption and most importantly export.

According to KEPROBA’s Manager for Export Market Development, there is need to increase the quantity and value of the export from the diverse potentials in Kenya’s blue economic spaces.

“As key players, we must demonstrate value and adopt means on how to attract investors in the Kenyan blue economy space. Interpretation of Kenya’s policies and understanding of related and existing strategies towards maximization of opportunity from the blue economy is very important,” she said. “We need to develop viable investments plan, based on data, on our blue economy.”

High post-harvest losses, high rate of near the shore fishing expeditions resulting in harvesting of small and immature fish, lack of proper storage equipment such as ice making plants, cool boxes and cold rooms, are some of the challenge highlighted by the stakeholders.

The Turkana County Deputy Secretary, Robert Loyetei said that the fisheries industry in the county has great potential for growth.

” A few challenges include pollution of the beaches with climate change being the biggest risk. We need to look at policies and laws that will govern us in blue economy. What is the global practice? How can we benefit from the resources that we have? We must look at ways in which our laws will protect our water bodies. For us to trade effectively, we must start from the environment in which we operate in.

The KEPROBA team will visit several sites including Lake Turkana, Lodwar Fish Market and Kalokol.