Livelihoods Under Pressure: A study of the informal by-product sector
of the Lake Victoria Fisheries
A case from Obunga, Kenya
Tale Steen-Johnsen
Working Paper Nr. 2000.4
Abstract
This paper describes the work organisation of an informal fish processing
industry in the Lake Victoria fisheries. It seeks to explain how this
industry is influenced by both the formal environment and by local socio-economic
and socio-cultural structures.
The case discussed is from Obunga on the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria.
The informal fish processors in this area earn their livelihood by frying
fish skeletons left after the filleting of fish by the modern processing
plants. The skeletons are deep-fried and subsequently sold to local and
regional markets for human consumption.
The paper has four main sections. The first section gives background
information on the case and the study. The second section describes the
organisation of the formal fish-processing industry. This is done to provide
information of the formal environment which probably influences the skeleton
industry in Obunga. The third section aims at describing the organisation
of the skeleton industry, while the last part of the paper discusses how
external and internal pressures influence the work organisation among
the skeleton dealers.
It is an underlying hypothesis that the skeleton industry is closely
intertwined with the formal fish processing industry, and thus vulnerable
to changes in the formal framework. More local level explanation factors
for this vulnerability are also highlighted. As the majority of the informal
fish processors are women, a gender perspective will underlie the discussions.
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