Farmers demand 50 reduction in fish importation by FG

The association of fish farmers in Kwara state (AFFAK) has called on the federal government to “cut the importation of fish by 50 percent”.

AFFAK said the government should then support and mobilise fish producers in the country to fill the gap.

They said such policy will greatly support the dwindling fortunes of fish production in the country which has been badly affected by global trends and lack of standardisation of pricing.

AFFAK president, Brigadier Saidu Olasupo (retd) disclosed this to Daily Trust on Sunday shortly after the election of a new executive.

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According to him, “The next thing is to then assist the local producers back home to fill the 50 percent gap to reverse the situation for the better”, he noted.

He said there is also the need to regulate pricing following the high inflation in the country and the war in Ukraine among others which has led to high cost of feed.

The new president said most of their inputs in the fishing industry are imported with a daily increase in price making it difficult to sustain their capital base.

He called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s new government to leverage the new ministry of blue economy to improve fish production and aquaculture in the country.

A fish feed distributor, Alhaji Bashir Owolabi, lamented the loss of millions of naira to flooding annually.

He called on the Kwara state government to ensure that drainages are properly channelled, most especially from Unity down to Sango, to avoid a repeat of the huge loss farmers using that corridor suffered last year.

Bashir, who explained that the fish farming producers in Nigeria are running at a loss due to the non uniformity in the price of the fish, appealed to the government to dialog with producers in the entire fish value chain for price regulations across the country.