Kenya: Perch leather for the fashion industry

The town of Kisumu on Lake Victoria in Kenya lives from fishing. It’s not just the edible part that’s used: the skin is becoming an increasingly popular product in the international fashion industry.

Celine Adhiambo scrapes the light-colored scales from the fish skin in her hand. There is a small pile of fish remains on the floor in front of the 38-year-old. Together with other women, she uses the waste from fish production in the city of Kisumu in south-west Kenya to earn money. “We process the fish skins and then sell them to people who use them to make shoes, belts and handbags,” explains Adhiambo. “I’ve been doing this job for 20 years and it has helped me a lot. I can take care of my children and pay their school fees.”

Fish skins as a basis for business

First the women clean the skins, remove the scales and remains of the meat. A job that requires patience. “This work helps us women a lot,” says Adhiambo. And adds: “It’s not for men, they can’t sit on the floor from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon. That’s not a problem for us.” She then hangs the scraped hides on large wooden racks to dry. Hundreds of them blow here in the light wind. The women no longer just sell them to individual seamstresses.

Twelve years ago, Newton Owino made fish skins the basis of a small company. The 42-year-old now employs eleven tailors in his workshop. Shoes, wallets and bags are made from the fish skin. Sometimes sewn together from pure fish leather, sometimes combined with fabric or imitation leather. Of course, Owino was interested in business, but he also wanted to support women and help the environment.

“The city’s fish industry produces 150,000 tons of fish waste every year,” says company founder Owino. “This waste causes a lot of environmental problems, one of which is that it puts too many nutrients in Lake Victoria.” Because the leftovers from the fillet production are otherwise simply dumped into the water. Lake Victoria is under massive threat from, among other things, the rapidly growing population around the lake, the fishing industry, the introduction of sewage and the growth of the non-native water hyacinth. The largest lake in Africa is the livelihood of the region.

Newton Owino’s company now processes up to 15 tons of fish skins a week and claims to export the finished products to Canada, Ethiopia, South Africa and the United States. Fish skin leather is becoming increasingly popular in the international fashion industry. Because more and more people are looking for alternatives to conventional leather, which is made from the skin of mammals.

“A pillar of the Kenyan economy”

Owino obtains the fish skins from around 80 saleswomen. Kenya still has too few of these small manufacturing companies, says Ken Gichinga, chief economist at Nairobi-based consultancy Mentoria Economics, but their importance is already great. “They are a pillar of the Kenyan economy,” Gichinga said. “Because they connect the informal with the regular job market. They bring money into circulation, which then spreads widely and reaches so many people and supports livelihoods.”

The informal sector in Kenya is huge, around 14.5 million Kenyans were employed there in 2020, according to the Kenya Statistics Office, almost double the number employed in the regular labor market. For example, people work as day labourers, in agriculture or offer services. The corona pandemic is likely to have intensified this again. “Otherwise, the money is concentrated in the big cities,” explains the analyst. “But such operations expand the flow of money. Keeping money circulating leads to more sustainable growth for more people.” And it makes the market more inclusive and diverse.

Most products made by George Owino’s shop cost four to six dollars. First the fish skin is soaked, then banana extract is added to counteract the smell. Salt is also added. The skin soaks for eight hours, then it is dried – and can be dyed and processed. Tailor Leonard Okumu is sitting in the workshop at one of the old black sewing machines sewing a green piece of fish leather. Then he takes one of the finished colorful bags from the hook on the wall. “This one is a good example of how we combine fish waste and fabric,” he says. “And create something unique that way.”