The Chamber of Aquaculture Ghana is touting the aquaculture sector as a promising opportunity for private-sector investment. According to the Chamber, the challenges faced by the aquaculture value chain in the country present significant investment opportunities.
Jacob Doe Adzikah, CEO of the Chamber, identified key issues such as transportation difficulties, a lack of adequate cold storage facilities, and insufficient cold vans as major obstacles hindering the sector’s growth. He noted that many industry players rely on a limited number of third-party providers for these essential services, leading to exploitation and higher costs.
Adzikah explained that due to these challenges, the sector is not currently operating in line with global best practices. Fish farmers often lack the resources to invest in necessary services such as cold chain facilities, forcing them to rely on traditional and less efficient methods of transporting farmed fish to market.
“Right from after production, you could see that there is a challenge when it comes to transporting the products or providing a co-chain service to the marketplace. At the moment, small-scale businesses don’t have the requisite resources to invest in co-chain facilities; cold rooms, cold vans etc. They have to now depend on others and during this period depending on their financial capacities, they are likely to have these services at a higher cost,” Jacob Doe Adzikah explained.
He added that, “in some cases, they have to adapt to the traditional way of transporting the farm fish to the marketplace. This usually is not a global standard but they just have to adapt and manage the situation.”
Given these challenges, the Chamber is urging investors to consider the aquaculture sector as a viable investment destination. Adzikah emphasized the need for investment in transportation, cold chain services, and distribution channels to enhance the efficiency and profitability of the sector.
The Ghana Statistical Service’s 2023 Census on Agriculture reported that aquaculture contributes an average of 1.1% to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 5.4% to Agriculture GDP for the period 2015-2020. The sector also supplies raw materials to fish canneries and other related industries, providing direct and indirect employment for approximately 20% of the active labour force along the fisheries and aquaculture value chain.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has also recognized the potential of aquaculture to feed and nourish the world’s growing population, noting that marine production is expected to increase, with aquaculture projected to play a significant role in meeting global food demand.
