This archive report was first published on 10 August 2019.
At Usenge Beach in Bondo, hundreds of fish are sold daily, including tilapia, Nile perch, and mud fish. However, the fishmongers remove the fish scales and throw them away as waste, unaware that they could earn millions of shillings in local and foreign markets.
Ms Agnes Aluoch, a fishmonger with over 10 years of experience, says she knows little about fish leather. 'We only sell the fish and throw away the rest. We scrap off the scales using a knife,' she explains, adding that they can throw away waste that fills up to a 20-litre bucket every day.
However, Mr Dennis Otieno, an intern at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (Kemfri), saw an opportunity in the leftovers. According to Otieno, about 150,000 tonnes of fish waste is produced every year, and 80 per cent of it is dumped.
During the ninth Great Lakes of the World Conference held in Kisumu, Otieno said they are offering an alternative. 'What we have been throwing away as waste can potentially sell higher than what we take home as the resource,' he said.
According to Otieno, the waste from fish has had environmental impacts, and he thought of finding an innovative solution to the problem. He has developed a process to make flowers from fish scales, which starts by washing them and then soaking them in dye extracted from plant pigments.
He then dries the scales in the sun for at least three hours and sticks them together using glue extracted from the fish skin to make desired designs and patterns. Otieno says there is a need for capital investment in aquaculture and that once he penetrates the market, he will be able to sell a bouquet at between Sh500-Sh1,000.
Apart from using the fish scales to make flowers, Otieno also extracts oil from them, which he uses to make soaps and pressed cakes. He says while fish weighing 18kg sells at Sh7,200, one is able to extract 11 litres of oil from the waste and sell at Sh8,250.
