Need to support aquaculture sector…

Projections for 2013 suggest fish farmers produced 70 million tonnes of fish, which is 44 percent of the total fishery output.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation says the booming world fish trade is generating more wealth than ever before, and that countries must help small-scale fishers and fish farmers benefit too!

The record trade figures reflect the strong growth in aquaculture output and the high prices for a number of species such as salmon and shrimp. Developing countries continue to play a major role in supplying world markets; accounting for 61 percent of all fish exports by quantity and 54 percent by value in 2012.

Their net export revenues (export minus imports) reached US$35.3billion, higher than those for other agricultural products combined including rice, meat, sugar and bananas.

However, benefits from international trade are not trickling down to small-scale fishing communities, even though small-scale fishers and fish farmers constitute about 90 percent of the sector’s global workforce, the FAO has said.

Thus, the organisation is urging countries to assist small-scale farmers and fish workers -- around half of them women -- to overcome a number of barriers such as lack of bargaining power and access to credit, difficulty in meeting market access regulations, and poor trade-related infrastructure, so that they can access local, global and especially regional markets.

Recently, as part of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Trade Capacity building Programme for Ghana, an assessment of the fish value chain was conducted in the country with the view to identify key challenges for selected fish products and draw up activities that will add value to the industry for easy access to local and international markets.

The assessment concentrated on three fish chains: that is tuna, tilapia and smoked inland fish. Along the tuna fish chain, the final national market consumes 22,000 metric tonnes a year while 61,000 metric tonnes are exported to Europe.

On the other hand, there is no export of tilapia since internal demand is high -- although small quantities of salted tilapia (koobi) are exported. In fact, currently there is no industrial processing of tilapia in spite of the fact that potential exists for processing skinless and boneless tilapia for the American and European markets.

Growing demand is stimulating new investments in local aquaculture production in Africa, including Ghana; and this is amply demonstrated by the fact that numerous aquaculture small-scale farmers who produce the tilapia in the country find a ready market here due to its high demand.

Like the assessment pointed out, this can be optimally exploited through venturing into the international market by first establishing a processing plant to remove skin and bones for it to be sold as fillet.

In his State of the Nation address earlier in the week, President John Mahama mentioned fish imports among other items that inflate our import bill and affect the country’s balance of payments. Thus, there is a need for government to take the FAO’s advice and invest heavily in aquaculture to meet domestic demand as well as exporting same.

The country cannot afford to miss this opportunity to make good on its effort to stimulate local demand for local products!