Kenya’s tuna industry navigates commerce, conservation and contradiction
By Gladys Mwabegu
At dawn along the Kenyan coast, fishing vessels return from the Indian Ocean with holds full of yellowfin and skipjack tuna. These fish will travel through a supply chain stretching from artisanal fishermen to multinational processors, navigating certification schemes, trade agreements and sustainability pressures before reaching consumers thousands of miles away. The journey reveals much about modern global trade and the tensions between economic development and environmental stewardship.
Kenya’s tuna industry operates within the broader Western Indian Ocean fishery, which produces approximately 450,000 tonnes of tuna annually, according to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission. The country’s waters are home primarily to yellowfin (Thunnus albacares), skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis), and smaller quantities of bigeye tuna. These species migrate through Kenya’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from the coastline, creating fishing opportunities that support livelihoods whilst generating export revenues of roughly $50 million per year, based on Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute data from 2023.
The fishing grounds around Malindi, Kilifi and Lamu have sustained coastal communities for generations. Yet understanding these waters requires looking beyond Kenya’s shores to the entire Western Indian Ocean basin, where climate patterns, illegal fishing by foreign vessels, and regional cooperation shape what local fishermen can catch and sell.
Two worlds of harvesting
Kenya’s tuna sector reveals a stark divide between industrial and artisanal methods. Industrial purse seiners, often flagged to European or Asian nations, deploy massive nets capable of encircling entire schools of tuna. These vessels, operating under access agreements negotiated between Kenya and distant water fishing nations, can catch 20 tonnes in a single haul. The European Union’s fishing agreement with Kenya, renewed in 2023, allows EU vessels to catch up to 5,500 tonnes annually in Kenyan waters in exchange for €682,000 in annual fees plus sectoral support funding.
Artisanal fishermen, by contrast, work from small wooden dhows and fibre glass boats, using handlines and longlines. Along the Kenyan coast, approximately 12,000 fishermen depend on tuna fishing, according to the State Department for Fisheries. These fishermen typically catch between 10 and 50 kilograms per trip, selling their haul to local traders or directly to processing plants. Mohamed Ali, a fisherman from Shimoni with 30 years’ experience, explains the economics: “We get about 200 shillings per kilo for yellowfin if it’s fresh and good quality. But if the buyers already have enough fish that day, the price drops.”
The artisanal sector faces persistent challenges. Limited cold storage infrastructure means fish quality deteriorates rapidly in Kenya’s coastal heat. Access to financing for better equipment remains difficult, with interest rates for microloans often exceeding 15 per cent. Meanwhile, industrial vessels can fish more efficiently with sophisticated sonar and GPS technology, creating an uneven playing field that development organizations have struggled to address despite decades of intervention programmes.
From fish to export commodity
Once landed, tuna enters a processing chain concentrated in Kenya’s coastal towns. Mombasa hosts the country’s largest tuna processing facilities, including Coastal Catch Limited and Sea Harvest Kenya, which process tuna for both domestic consumption and export. These plants employ approximately 3,000 workers, predominantly women who earn between 15,000 and 25,000 shillings monthly, according to the Kenya Union of Commercial Food and Allied Workers.
Processing involves several stages: grading by size and species, blast freezing to minus 60 degrees Celsius for sashimi-grade fish, or cooking and canning for mass market products. Kenya’s processed tuna exports go primarily to European Union markets, where demand remains robust despite economic uncertainties. The country exported 8,400 tonnes of processed tuna worth $62 million in 2023, representing a 12 per cent increase from the previous year, according to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics trade data.
Yet Kenya’s position in the global tuna value chain remains as a raw material supplier rather than a value-added producer. Whilst Thai and Ecuadorian processors have built branded products with premium pricing, Kenyan tuna typically enters European markets as generic ingredients for own-brand supermarket products. This positioning captures less value whilst leaving local processors vulnerable to price fluctuations and shifting consumer preferences in distant markets.
The port infrastructure at Mombasa has improved, with new cold storage facilities commissioned in 2022 increasing capacity by 40 per cent. However, electricity costs remain high, increasing processing expenses and reducing competitiveness against regional rivals in Mauritius and the Seychelles.
The certification conundrum
Sustainability certification has become a prerequisite for accessing premium markets. The Marine Stewardship Council, the dominant certification body for wild-caught seafood, sets standards for stock management, ecosystem impact and traceability. Obtaining MSC certification costs between $15,000 and $100,000, depending on fishery size and complexity, a substantial barrier for artisanal operations.
Kenya’s industrial tuna fishery achieved MSC certification in 2019, but maintaining it requires continuous monitoring and compliance with harvest quotas set by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission. The IOTC’s latest scientific assessment, published in 2024, found that yellowfin tuna stocks in the Indian Ocean are overfished, with biomass at 88 per cent of the level that would support maximum sustainable yield. This has triggered calls for reduced catch limits, which would directly impact Kenyan revenues.
Artisanal fishermen operate outside formal certification schemes, lacking the resources and organizational capacity to navigate the bureaucratic requirements. This creates a two-tier system where industrial operators can access European supermarket contracts whilst small-scale fishermen remain confined to local markets or non-certified export channels with lower prices. Dr Judith Nyunja from the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute notes that “the cost and complexity of certification systems were designed with large-scale fisheries in mind, creating unintended barriers for small-scale operators who often fish more sustainably by default.”
Environmental groups have pushed for stronger enforcement against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the Western Indian Ocean, estimated to cost Kenya $40 million annually in lost revenue. Chinese-flagged vessels, in particular, have been caught fishing illegally in Kenyan waters, though diplomatic sensitivities complicate enforcement efforts.
Markets and technology
Trade policy fundamentally shapes Kenya’s tuna prospects. The Economic Partnership Agreement between Kenya and the European Union, which came into force in 2021, grants Kenyan tuna exports duty-free access to EU markets. This preferential treatment provides a competitive advantage over non-partner countries facing tariffs of up to 20 per cent on processed tuna products.
However, maintaining this access requires compliance with EU health and safety standards, traceability requirements and rules of origin provisions. The latter stipulate that tuna must be caught in Kenyan waters or by Kenyan-flagged vessels, a provision that has generated disputes given the mobile nature of tuna stocks and the prevalence of fishing by foreign vessels in Kenyan waters.
Technology increasingly underpins trade competitiveness. Blockchain-based traceability systems, piloted by several Kenyan exporters since 2023, allow consumers to verify a fish’s journey from catch to sale by scanning a QR code. This transparency appeals to conscientious consumers whilst providing data that helps processors optimize operations and reduce waste.
The tuna journey from Kenyan waters to foreign shelves encapsulates the dilemmas facing African countries seeking to leverage natural resources for development whilst satisfying international environmental standards and competing in sophisticated markets. Success requires not merely catching fish but navigating certification bureaucracies, maintaining infrastructure, securing trade agreements and adopting technologies that were once the preserve of wealthy nations. As global tuna stocks face mounting pressure, Kenya’s ability to sustainably manage its share whilst capturing more value from the supply chain will test whether development and conservation can indeed swim in the same waters.
