Uganda's fish exports earnings in 2005 hit 142 million U.S. dollars up from 103 million dollars in 2004, an official in charge of fisheries has said.

The remarkable performance has been partly attributed to an increase on export tonnage and the higher prices in the foreign market, Dick Nyeko, the commissioner in charge of fisheries was quoted by local media as saying on Tuesday.

The price per kg of fish fillet sold at four U.S. dollars up from 3.50 dollars in 2004, while a total of 35,000 tons of fish fillets were exported up from 32,000 tons in 2004, he said.

"We performed better in 2005 and we take it as a challenge to encourage all the stakeholders to work towards quality," he said, adding that the country's fish exports will increase this year as the government is going to encourage the private sector to go into fish farming.

Nyeko said Uganda's fish now reaches almost to all parts of the world namely the European Union (EU), Japan, Australia, South America, Cuba, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Egypt and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa among others.

In 2000, the EU banned fish and its products from Uganda after allegations of use of poison to catch the fish.

However, since the lifting of the ban, the fisheries industry in the east African country has performed remarkably well and becoming the first non-traditional export commodity. Uganda's major traditional export earnings are coffee and cotton.

More than 350,000 people in Uganda are directly employed by the fisheries industry and over 1.2 million others are indirectly employed, according to official figures.

Source: Xinhua