The Kenya Fish Marketing Authority is a body corporate established under the Fisheries Management and Development Act, 2016 to market fish and fishery products from Kenya. Prior to this there was no government institution specifically charged with responsibility of marketing fish and fishery products.
Fish and fishery products represent one of the most-traded segments of the world food Sector, with about 78 percent of seafood products estimated to be exposed to international trade. The bulk of Kenyan fish and fishery products are consumed locally with the national market offering equally competitive returns. Further, Kenyan fish and fishery products for export have been declining while the imports have been increasing over the last 10 years.
However, the Kenyan fisheries sub-sector has been operating without a fish marketing institution since independence though marketing of fish and fishery products is carried out by individual enterprises. This has resulted in limited access to international markets, exploitation of fish marketing potential, and fish market information sharing to improve competitiveness; and weak fish marketing organizations. This has led to inadequate local, national, regional and international marketing of fish and fishery products. It is against this background that the Kenya Fish Marketing Authority (KFMA) was established to strengthen fish marketing.