New fish drying technology set to boost livelihoods in Kwale County

Over 500 fishermen and vendors at Shimoni and Mwazaro villages in Lungalunga, Kwale County have started using a new drying machine as a mode of preservation.

Apart from drying sea food, the  solcooldry machine system that uses solar energy also makes ice cubes which assists fish to remain fresh even as the fishermen travel with the commodity long distances searching for market.

The residents in Mwazaro and Shimoni villages’ main economic activities being fishing had in the recent past suffered major losses in their businesses due to lack of preservation systems for the sea food as most of the fishermen could not afford electric freezers.

Speaking to Business Hub, Saumu Abdalla, a fish vendor from Shimoni said the solcooldry machine will highly improve businesses in the area and fishermen will now be practicing massive fishing because they have the new machine for preservation.

“We are hopeful that our businesses will do well since earlier most of the fishermen and fish vendors could not afford the electric freezers but now with the new machine it is cheap and efficient because it only uses solar energy to make for us ice cubes and also dry the fish,” she said.

Peter Odote, a research scientist at KMFRI said when using the machine at a high temperature it dries the sea food at a very short time and still keeps the commodity very fresh on both taste and appearance for up to three days.  –