Oops..Federal Government bans fish importation.

Few weeks after the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Akinwunmi Adesina, was honoured by Forbes magazine, more Nigerians have taken a swipe at his decision to place a ban on the importation of fish into the country. They are of the opinion that the directive by the Federal Government through the minister is another ploy to deny the poor masses their only cheap source of protein.

Investigation had it that Nigerians cutting across all strata of the society remain unhappy over the imminent price hike of fish when the ban eventually takes full effect by end of December 2013.

It will be recalled that Adesina made the pronouncement a few weeks ago during the launch of the Special Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme, which is intended to boost local aquaculture production through the Aquaculture Value Chain initiative.
To ensure strict adherence to the directive, the Federal Government, in a letter dated October 29, 2013, to fish importers directed them to ensure that all Bills of Lading carried dates not later than October 2013 and the fish cargoes (consignments) arrived the Nigerian waters not later than December 31, 2013.

Findings across various markets in Lagos that forms the bulk of the market in the country revealed that the price of the item has truly escalated beyond what poor Nigerians can afford.  As at last week, a carton of Titus now sells for N13, 500, up from N10, 500 while Kote now goes for N10, 200 from N7,500.

To justify the GES/AVC initiatives, the minister claimed the aquaculture value chain would produce 400,000 tonnes of fish, generate extra 250,000 of table fish and 100,000 tonnes of value added fish.

According to the FAO’s, the state of world fisheries and aquaculture report 2012, Nigeria produced 200535 tonnes of aquaculture fish, representing 15.57 per cent of global production in 2010, and had an annual consump-tion requirement of 1.2 million metric tonnes based on a population figure of 100 million and per capita consumption of 12 kg per annum regarded as adequate for a normal healthy growth.

These figures reveal that even if the ambitious objectives put forward by the minister are indeed achieved, there will still be a significant shortfall in fish availability for consumption, if importa-tion were banned outright as is currently the case.