Nigeria spends N80bn on fish importation annually

Fresh Fish

A huge industry has been built around fish importation with Nigerians expending over N80billion annually on its consumption.

This is even as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akin Adesina, said Nigeria imports at least two million tonnes of fish annually to meet the country’s growing fish demand.

Speaking at the commissioning of an ultra-modern floating fish plant in Lagos, Adesina, who spoke through the President, Nigerian Institute of Animal Science, Prof Patrick Njoku, said despite the increasing fish demand estimated at 2.7 million metric tons per annum, the local production capacity is about 700,000 metric tonnes, thereby requiring the importation of two million tonnes to augment the shortfall.

He said the floating fish feed plant established by Akin-Sateru Farms Nigeria Limited will improve the livelihood of farmers and consumers through increased aquaculture productivity.

Also speaking on the occasion, Oba Tijani Akinloye observed that Nigeria spends over N80billion on the importation of fish in annually.

According to Sateru II Ojomu of Ajiranland, the high volume of importation constituted a huge drain in the nation’s foreign exchange reserve while the pressure of demand on the limited supply translates to high prices of fish and its products in the country as a whole.

He said the nation imports 700, 000tonnes of feeds, while 400,000 tonnes is produced locally.

He expressed regret that the shortfall of feed supply has led to high cost of production for fish farmers across the country.

He noted that the high cost of fish resulting from the scarcity could only be reversed if more people went into fish production through aquaculture, which he maintained was the major avenue for increasing domestic fish production in the country.

According to him, the ultra modern floating fish plant at Lekki will help boost the aquaculture sector because it applies the technology of producing floating extruded fish feed, adding that the new floating feed, he reiterated, would boost declining fish stocks and export earnings.