Ghana identified as a good ground for aquaculture business

Accra, Feb 20, GNA - Mrs. Gladys Asmah, Minister for Fisheries on Tuesday called on Ghanaians entrepreneurs to position themselves to partner foreign investors in the aquaculture industry since Ghana has been identified as a good site for aquaculture business. She said studies over 93the last two years have proven beyond all doubt that aquaculture in Ghana can be a viable economic and rewarding venture because all the natural factors, especially water and good soil are available in abundance".

Mrs Asmah was addressing about 200 participants who attended a day's Aquaculture Investors Forum in Accra that deliberated on the government's aim of promoting aquaculture as a business venture. It attracted participants from the Association of Ghana Industries, Banking and Financial Institutions, fish farmers, animal feed producers, importers and exporters and policy makers at all levels.

Mrs Asmah said the promotion of aquaculture in the past failed because people lacked commitment, treated it as a hobby instead of a business and lacked technical expertise.

"These constraints were aggravated by factors that include: not too clear institutional policies and allocations of responsibilities, weak aquaculture institutions, poor networking among aquaculture institutions, poorly defined skilled staff and motivated practitioners at all levels.

"Also, lack of complete understanding of scientific aquaculture, the abundant marine and inland fishing at the time did not give the needed impetus to pursue aquaculture as a viable enterprise, hence the poor performance of the industry at the time," Mrs Asamh said. The Fisheries Minister said government was giving all interested parties the opportunity to retrace their steps and move forward in making aquaculture the business for the next decade.

"The ministry's target for aquaculture production in the next five years is to produce up to 50 per cent of local consumption which stands at about 400,000 metric tonnes.

"To achieve this target, there is the need to step up efforts, to inject major factors such as financial and technical support in the aquaculture enterprise," Mrs Asmah said.

She said lessons from Asia which produced more than 90 per cent of world aquaculture suggested that it was basically the involvement, support and investments of their financial institutions. She therefore suggested the setting up of an Aquaculture Support Funds by the banks to support aquaculture development. Mr Joh Moehl, Regional Aquaculture Officer, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said globally aquaculture was one of the world's fastest growing food production sectors.

"In Ghana, as elsewhere in Africa, aquaculture is looked upon as a high 96potential sector that can make significant contributions to our efforts to achieve food security and sustainable economic growth". Aquaculture, Mr Moehl, noted could only advance through direct investment by the private sector, be it in micro, small, medium or large enterprises.

He however, cautioned the new investors against seeing the industry as a 91quick road to riches.

"It is hard work, but in many cases, today's investors will be charting a new path, using new technologies and developing new markets. While it is not risk-free, it is challenging, highly profitable, rewarding and of importance to both the investor and the country," Mr Moehl said.

He said there was a high level of political will to support the development of the sector and this would have to be merged with an equal dose of technical and economic pragmatism to identify doable and profitable aquaculture investments.

Mr Moehl pledged that FAO would remain a staunch partner with the Ministry of Fisheries in promoting the new wave of profitable aqua-businesses and would be ready to offer all possible assistance within its means.

Ms Joyce Aryee, who chaired the function urged Ghanaians to take advantage of the 93Blue Gold" since it held a lot of prospects for the country. 20 Feb. 07