A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration in Corporate Management (MBA-CM) to Mzumbe University.
This study sought to assess the impacts of trade liberalisation in the fishery sector in Tanzania. Specifically, the study aimed to establish the effects of liberalization of the fishery sector on fish catch; identify effects of liberalization of the fishery sector on employment creation; on export revenues and on trend of fish prices.
A case study research design was employed for this study. The main variables used were fish production, employment creation, fish exports, revenues from fish exports and fish prices. Data were collected from secondary sources through documentary review. The findings of the study were organized and presented in the form of words, numbers and percentages by using tables, pie charts, histograms and graphs.
The findings of the study conclude that the liberalization of the fishery sector in Tanzania has had both, positive and negative impacts. The positive impacts include the attraction of private investors who opened up fish processing plants, increased fish processing capacity, created employment opportunities and increased government revenues through exports.
The negative impact of liberalization of the fishery sector in Tanzania is that the increase in demand from fish processing plants resulted in overfishing, which led to decrease in fish catch. This, hence, resulted in closure of some fish processing plants, and thus forcing to some people lose their jobs while small-scale fishermen lost their livelihoods. It also pushed high fish prices making fish unaffordable to the poor.
The study recommends that fishery policy should aim at solving the problems of the environment and overfishing. Also, the government should promote aquaculture as an alternative to depleting marine and fresh water fish resources. The government should also introduce effort regulation and encourage the use of modern fishing methods.