Aquaculture industry lament over high cost of feed
Stakeholders in the aquaculture industry are lamenting over the increasing cost of fish feed and materials in the market.
According to the Chief Executive of the Chamber of Aquaculture Ghana, Jacob Adzikah, the prices of fish feed has multiplied by 200 percent.
He also indicated that the rising cost of ingredients such as maize and soya has resulted in the sector to relying heavily on imports to enable them produce feed for their fishes.
Speaking to Joy Business, Mr Adzikah stated that the high cost of feed is accounting for the high cost of fish in the markets.
“These days the prize of tilapia and cat fish are rising very fast and we need to take some drastic decisions to prevent this continuous increase in prices of fish feed materials”, he said.
He added that many fish farms are closing down as a result of the high cost of production and this is equally leading to job losses in the aquaculture industry.
“A lot of farms are gradually going down because the cost of production is just too high and once this farms are collapsing, it has rippled effects and we’re going to see job losses in the aquaculture industry”, he added.
Mr. Adzikah further made a call to the government to consider tax waivers and research to discover new ingredients for fish feed production, among others.
Source: Ghana News
