BANS, TESTS and ALCHEMY: FOOD SAFETY STANDARDS and the UGANDAN FISH EXPORT INDUSTRY Stefano Ponte DIIS Working Paper No 2005/19
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DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES STRANDGADE 56 • 1401 COPENHAGEN K • DENMARK TEL +45 32 69 87 87 • [email protected] • www.diis.dk BANS, TESTS AND ALCHEMY: FOOD SAFETY STANDARDS AND THE UGANDAN FISH EXPORT INDUSTRY Stefano Ponte DIIS Working Paper no 2005/19 © Copenhagen 2005 Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS Strandgade 56, DK-1401 Copenhagen, Denmark Ph: +45 32 69 87 87 Fax: +45 32 69 87 00 E-mails: [email protected] Web: www.diis.dk Cover Design: Carsten Schiøler Printed in Denmark by Vesterkopi as ISBN: 87-7605-104-8 Price: DKK 25,00 (VAT included) DIIS publications can be downloaded free of charge from www.diis.dk Stefano Ponte, Ph.D., is Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen. He can be reached at [email protected] Contents 1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................1 2. The international regulatory framework governing exports of fish from Lake Victoria .............................................................................................................................................5 2.1 Main agreements and tariff barriers ...............................................................................................5 2.2 Non-tariff barriers ............................................................................................................................6 3. Uganda fisheries on Lake Victoria: a profile ...........................................................................9 3.1 Background........................................................................................................................................9 3.2 Fisheries resource management....................................................................................................12 3.3 Aquaculture......................................................................................................................................18 3.4 Export markets ...............................................................................................................................19 3.5 Regional trade..................................................................................................................................32 4. Actors and operations in the Uganda Nile perch value chain..........................................34 4.1 Fishing and landing site operations..............................................................................................34 4.2 Industrial processors ......................................................................................................................41 4.3 Export/import Operations: laboratory services, logistics and distribution...........................46 4.4 Distribution of value added along the Nile perch chain...........................................................48 5. Fish safety standards: Uganda before and after the EU import bans............................51 5.1 Regulatory framework on fish safety standards .........................................................................51 5.2 Fish safety management in a historical perspective...................................................................54 5.3 Consequences of the EU bans......................................................................................................57 5.4 Critical issues ...................................................................................................................................61 6. Other standards..............................................................................................................................64 6.1 ISO 9000..........................................................................................................................................64 6.2 Maritime Stewardship Council (MSC) certification...................................................................68 7. Participation in standards making............................................................................................70 8. Concluding remarks......................................................................................................................71 Appendix 1: EU Food Safety Regulation.....................................................................................77 References ............................................................................................................................................81 Abstract Fish exports are the second largest foreign exchange earner in Uganda. When Uganda’s fish export industry started to operate in the late 1980s and early 1990s, one may have thought that fish was being turned into gold. From an export value of just over one million US$ in 1990, the mighty Nile Perch had earned the country over 45 million US$ just six years later. But alchemy proved to be more than the quest of the philosophers’ stone to change base metals into gold. From 1997 to 2000, the industry experienced a series of import bans, imposed by the EU on grounds of food safety. Despite claims to the contrary, the EU did not provide scientific proof that fish was actually ‘unsafe’. Rather, the poor performance of Uganda’s regulatory and monitor- ing system was used as a justification. The ‘system’, as the characters of an allegory, has no individual personality and is the embodiment of the moral qualities that ‘the consumer’ expects from ‘responsible operators’ in the fish sector. Only by fixing this system of regulations and inspections, and by performing the ritual of laboratory testing did the Ugandan industry regain its status as a ‘safe’ source of fish. Fish exports now earn almost 90 million US$ to the country. This apparent success story was achieved by a common front comprising government authorities and the processing industry, a high level of private-public collaboration not often seen in East Africa. Yet, important chunks of the regulatory and monitoring system exist only on paper. Furthermore, the system is supposed to achieve a series of contradictory objectives: to facilitate efficient logi- stics and ensure food safety; to match market demand and take care of sustainability; to imple- ment a top-down food safety monitoring system and a bottom-up fisheries co-management system. This means that at least some food safety-related operations have to be carried out as ‘rituals of verification’. Given the importance of microbiological tests and laboratories in the food safety compliance system, alchemic rituals are perhaps a more appropriate metaphor. While the white coats and advanced machinery of present-day alchemists reassure insecure European regulators and consumers, it leaves the Ugandan fish industry in a vulnerable position. In Uganda, fish can now be turned into gold again – but for how long? DIIS WORKING PAPER 2005/19 alchemy, ancient art of obscure origin that sought to transform base metals (e.g., lead) into silver and gold; forerunner of the science of chemistry … Alexandria is generally considered a center of early alchemy, and the art was influenced by the philosophy of the Hellenistic Greeks; the conversion of base metals into gold (considered the most perfect of metals) was part of a general striving of all things toward perfection. Since the early alchemists were mainly artisans, they tried to conceal the secrets of their work; thus, many of the materials they used were referred to by obscure or astrological names. It is believed that the concept of the philosopher's stone (called also by many other names, including the elixir and the grand magistery) may have originated in Alexandria; this was an imaginary substance thought to be capable of transmuting the less noble metals into gold and also of restoring youth to the aged. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed., 2005, Columbia University Press. Alchemy is a complex subject with many different interconnected aspects. Many people still only think of the quest of the philosophers' stone to change base metals into gold … [Some] alchemical texts are wonderful works of allegorical literature, delve into its amazing, beautiful and enigmatic symbolism, and ponder its underlying hermetic philosophy, which holds a picture of the interconnection of the Macrocosm and Microcosm. http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html 1. Introduction1 When Uganda’s fish export industry started to operate in the late 1980s and early 1990s, one may have thought that fish was being turned into gold. From an export value of just over one million US$ in 1990, the mighty Nile Perch had earned the country over 45 million US$ just six years later. But alchemy proved to be more than the quest of the philosophers’ stone to change base metals into gold. From 1997 to 2000, the industry experienced EU import bans that were just- ified on the basis of allegorical meanings to the notion of ‘fish safety’. All of a sudden, the ‘Macrocosm’ of consumer protection and the ‘Microcosm’ of fishers and fish processing plant workers’ practices and lives became strongly interconnected. Despite claims to the contrary, the EU did not provide scientific proof that fish was actually ‘unsafe’. Rather, the poor performance of Uganda’s regulatory and monitoring ‘system’ was used as a justification. The ‘system’, as the 1 I am indebted to Martin Fowler, Michael Friis Jensen, Peter Gibbon, and Jesper Raakjær Nielsen for useful com- ments on earlier versions of this paper. All mistakes and omissions are fully my own responsibility.