Tilapia – Farmers Suffer Low Patronage

The Coordinator of the Ghana Aquaculture Association, Mr. John Domozoro has bemoaned the low patronage of tilapia in the country. According to him, the fortune of their business is seriously under threat following what he describe as “neglect” by buyers; a situation he said is throwing them out of business. This he laments is regrettable following the expensive production cost of tilapia, a situation which continues to compel tilapia farmers to fall on credit facilities for loans.

Mr. Damozoro who was speaking in an interview with Rite news described finding buyers for their produce as looking for a needle in a haystack, a situation which leaves buyers dictating the price for their produce at costs convenient to them (buyers) which in the end leaves farmers disadvantaged.

“For the past two years, when we produce the tilapia, we find it difficult to find buyers and when we finally get them, they buy at their own price. One kilogram of tilapia which is supposed to go for Gh c 10 is bought for Gh c 8. Now who pays for the difference,” he questioned.

Fish farmers in the country have been saddled with numerous problems that are yet to be tackled by successive governments. Though present and past governments have consistently pledged their commitment towards salvaging the myriad of challenges confronting the sector, these assurances have invariably turned out to be mere lip services.

Unguaranteed market for aquaculture fish has discouraged many people from venturing into that sector. This is a threat to the development of aqua farming to supplement the dwindling sea catch in order to address the huge importation of fish into the country.

Aside these, the Coordinator of the Ghana Aquaculture Association catalogued other difficulties facing farmers as the lack of readily market for their produce, lack of proper storage facilities to store their produce during the bumper season and the issue of theft suffered by fish farmers.

Another challenge identified by Mr. Damozoro was the lack of requisite equipment to scan cartons of fish at the airports and the harbours. This follows revelations of deception by importers where for instance fish labelled to be ‘red fish’ turned out to be tilapia. He also complained about the importation of tilapia into the country which introduces unnecessary competition on the market as well as governments’ lack of commitment to the sector by paying lip services to their grievances.

Meanwhile, Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye has reiterated that the ban on the importation of tilapia into the country still holds. “There is a current ban on tilapia importation and hence anybody found to have imported such products into the country breaches the law,” she asserted.

The minister who blamed the importation on the steady depletion of Ghana’s fish stock said her outfit had put in place measures to control the situation.

According to her, the country currently imports over 60 percent of its 950,000 metric tonnes of fish it consumes annually. “We have a deficit of over 60 percent of production of fish in Ghana so we import over 600,000 metric tonnes of fish and we produce less than 400,000. At the moment we have our stock depleting steadily and we really have to do something quickly about it else we lose our stock entirely,” she has noted.

Mr. John Domozoro however lauded the minister’s intervention of placing the ban on the importation. “We wish to encourage the government to take the full risk and not lift the ban on the importation but rather invest into the local industry,” he has said.

Ironically, the highly profitable venture is increasingly becoming unattractive as a result of the absence of ready market coupled with other challenges.

By: Prince Paul Amuzu