16 January 2009
It may be more famous for its spices and for the architectural marvels of its ancient quarter, Stone Town, but the island of Zanzibar is now starting to earn a reputation among seafood-loving holidaymakers for the quality of a certain local delicacy.
Crabs reared along the coastline are going down a treat in the island's hotels, with tourists keen to get a taste of the real Zanzibar ordering more and more of the juicy creatures.
And as far as local woman Sada Juma (pictured left) is concerned, the bigger the appetite for crabs, the better. Working with a number of her female neighbours, it's Sada's job to fatten the crabs to perfection and then sell them on to hotel kitchens. On the surface this is a straightforward matter of supply meeting demand, but until recently supplies were unreliable and the demand was for the much better tasting crabs available from mainland Tanzania.
That Sada and her colleagues have turned the situation around, and are now turning a profit for themselves and their families, is thanks to the input of the charity Voluntary Services International (VSO). Supported by DFID, VSO is working on Zanzibar and throughout Tanzania to help poor and marginalised people make more money from their work.
Striking a deal
It was VSO volunteers working in Zanzibar's tourist hot-spots who first identified the market opportunity that Sada was able to seize. They saw that, though the island's hotels were bustling with guests, the contents of the hotel menus were rarely drawn from the supplies of local producers.
Broaching this with the hotels, however, the volunteers were told that, if they could guarantee a steady supply of high quality Zanzibarian produce, then a deal could be struck.
The Kisakasaka Women’s Group, a local collective led by Sada, was selected by VSO to rear crabs for two hotels. After buying small mud crabs from fishermen for 500 shillings (around 20 pence), the women keep them in rearing pens close to the sea, feeding them on fish scraps twice a day. Within six weeks, the crabs weigh 1 or 2 kilograms and are ready to take to the hotels, which the women do by bicycle to save on transport costs. Not having to pay for trucks or other fuel-dependent vehicles keeps prices down - which is certainly helping to change hotel attitudes about the pros and cons of buying locally.
Profiting from new skills
Today, with the crabs selling for up to 5,000 shillings each (£2.10), the profit on one fat crab alone can be a healthy £1.90. But for the women, the project’s success has delivered more than just hard cash.
"VSO has taught us democratic values and encouraged us to work more closely as a team," says Sada. "This has given us more bargaining power with the hotels."
The skills that have been picked up - learning how to plan months' ahead, balancing the books - are the skills that more of Zanzibar's poor working people need to acquire to increase their earnings. What's more, if Sada and the other Kisakasaka women ever tire of crab-farming, they will be able to lend their talents to another money-making enterprise. But to hear Sada talk, it seems unlikely that that moment will come any time soon.
"Now we want to expand," she says. "We need more pens and more crabs in time for the next tourist season. And we'd like to get our own transport so that we can go and sell to more hotels. Our aim is to bring more wealth to our village - to eradicate poverty here!"
Facts and stats
- The crab-fattening project is funded through VSO's partnership programme arrangement (PPA) with DFID. The PPA is worth £89 million from 2008/09 to 2010/2011.
- VSO is sharing its research from this and similar projects with government departments and tourist industry leaders to help develop local markets that work for the poor.
- The charity has also recently formed a partnership with Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors (ZATI) and is supporting their 'buy local' campaign by linking producer groups to a consortium of local hotels.