Fish Value Addition Practices by Women Fish Vendors in Dar Es Salaam: A Case of Mackerel Fish

Abstract

Fish value addition has been linked with enhanced economy for women vendors worldwide. Despite the existence of enormous benefits linked to value addition, many fish traders in Dar Es Salaam still sell unprocessed fish and fish products while a few of them sell the processed product. A number of practices for fish value addition have been identified through this study conducted in Kinondoni Dar Es Salaam. The study employed a cross-sectional design. The study population was 100 fish traders involved in the fish business. Structured questionnaires were employed. Quantitative and qualitative analysis using frequency table proportions (percentage) was used to interpret the data, and descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. The study established the fish vendors in Dar es Salaam were involved in fish cleaning (14%), grading (23%), processing (52), and packaging (11%). This implies thatthe majority of fish vendors were engaged in processing fish. Further, the study revealed that 5% of respondents were preserving fish in frozen devices, 77% of respondents were frying them, 7% were drying fish in the sun and11% were packing them. This implied that there are a number of methods used to ensure the quality of fish, but the most common one used by women fish vendors was to fry them. It was concluded that Value addition plays a crucial role in enhancing economic returns, expanding market opportunities, reducing waste, improving nutrition, and promoting food security