Omena prices up over 30% on moon, rains and fuel costs

“When the moon is there, it is hard to fish omena because the light that fishers use cannot attract the insects that the omena come to feed on when they see the light. When the moon is there, the light is scattered a lot on the lake hence the fishermen can go round and make no catch or very little,” said agripreneur Harrison Maina, the founder of Mimini Agri Limited, which sells value added fish, omena and ochong’a

“When the moon is not there, the fishermen go with the floater light which attracts mosquitoes and other insects and the omena come feeding and they are trapped with the fishing nets. So when the moon is there, they can’t fish enough omena or even other fish as they can see everywhere. When the moon is there, the lake is brighter than land,” he said.

A study by Uganda’s National Fisheries Resources Research Institute (NaFIRRI) in 2016/2017 confirmed that the fish catches are largest at the new moon, when the nights are darkest, and when fisher’s lights are most effective. This confined the lake’s ideal fishing period to October from 4th to 16th October, explaining the price rises in the second half of the month.

The new moon in November is offering better fishing again from 3rd to 15th November, but October and November always bring lower catches seasonally, based on omena’s breeding cycle.

This year, the relatively lower catches have been made worse by the steady rains, which make sun drying the fish harder and can lead to fish going bad.

“The best time to make a good catch is during the dark phases of the lunar cycle,” Wilkister Atieno, an agripreneur based in Kisumu majoring in tilapia, omena and mbuta.

But while the lunar happens every month, in October the weather at the lake is what has made things worse, she said, but she hopes that things will stabilise soon.

“I know you’ll wonder why I am selling at Sh450 (per gorogoro, to wholesalers), but it is just to make things, at least, for those going to sell on retail, but, literally, it should be higher than this even for me who is here at the lake,” she said.

For Lucy Atieno, who sells omena at Marikiti, the price of a 90kg sack has doubled, she said, with low catches at the lake together with a doubling in transport costs after fuel price hikes.

“The transport cost from the lakeside to Nairobi has become double what it was last month. Apart from that, the winds at the lake have been strong and the rains, too, in the last two weeks. With the weather conditions and now fuel rising, that is why you have seen that while omena was retailing at Sh450 in mid-October, two weeks later, as we close the month, we are at Sh600 while others are even selling at Sh650,” she said.