Post-Harvest Losses in Small-Scale Fisheries

Field work recently carried out in five sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Tanzania and Uganda) indicates that post-harvest fish losses in small-scale fisheries occur at all stages in the fish supply chain from capture to consumer. This technical paper, as support to the framework of the regional post-harvest loss assessment (PHLA) programme in small-scale fisheries in Africa aimed at improving the utilisation, safety and quality of fishery products, presents the findings, lessons learned and key achievements of the field studies. The paper underlines the need for governments and development agencies to ensure that changes in post-harvest fisheries-related policy and practices take stock of the loss assessment tools, information generated and experience of the programme and recommends that fish loss assessments should be incorporated into national data collection systems and used to regularly inform policy.