Dagaa fisheries in lake Tanganyika

Abstract

The dagaa industry of Lake Tanganyika is the Territory's most valuable inland fishery. The small sardine-like dagaa are marketed in a sun-dried form and this product is in great demand by employers of fed labour, particularly in the sisal industry. Over the past few years, sales of the value of exports of dried dagaa from the Lake Tanganyika area has been of the order of £150,000 per annum and approximately one-third of this amount is usually obtained in hard currency from sales to the neighboring Belgian Territories. On the production side the industry is entirely in the hands of Africans and at least 6,000, using upwards of 2,000 canoes, are believed to be engaged in the fishery.