Mundus maris

Meeting Ndeye DIENG, President of the CNPS women micro fish vendors

Following our interview with Mr. DIOP, President of CNPS, we went to meet another important person in the fishery. She is Ms. Ndeye DIENG, micro fishmonger and Secretary General of CNPS and President of the female cell. Like almost all of the women in Kayar, she is active fish processing.

The main varieties of fishery products are smoked fish, dried fish and fermented, salted and dried fish. The site on which they carry out the fish curing and drying has been built and equipped by the Japanese Cooperation in 2002 (see picture below).

Only after our interview with her were we able to visit the site to see for ourselves what we had spoken about concerning their activities. We saw that the installations seemed ill-adapted to the specific requirements of the women and were not used.

Together with other women with whom she shares this vast site, Ndeye DIENG told us about the severe conditions which they experience and which are mainly due to a lack of means and other complementary support for the development of fish processing and marketing. The difficulties are:

• Lack of fish is a big problem. The women criticise the fisheries agreements with foreign vessels allowing these to catch what little fish is left in the waters of Kayar.

• The deterioration of the kilns and drying rags which they use normally for the processing is forcing them to grill the fish under very rudimentary conditions on the ground burning straw.

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  Animated discussion among the fish mongers in Kayar

  The distance to markets on which they can sell their products.

• The lack of conservation and distribution of their products that are popular, but not sufficiently valued. They told us that this type of product is particularly popular with the Togolese, who are very fond of it and come to get it in Kayar at very low prices, then go back to Togo to resell it. They sometimes sell processed fish on credit to Togo and it happens that they are not paid in the end. The reason for taking this risk is that if they can not sell their perishable products in good time, they then see them rot in their hands.

Therefore, the women of Kayar had endorsed an initiative that had enabled them to be trained so that they can read and write and thus be better equipped to carry forward their activities successfully. This training was supported by the French port city of Lorient.

The women request further support for the development of their business and for promoting market access of their products.

Click here for a slide show about the meeting.