Fish Farmers Seek Research to Boost Export

A group of Lagos fish farmers has stressed the need for enhanced research and development to increase value-added opportunities in the aquaculture sector, thereby improving revenue generation and export opportunities.

The Vice President of the Lagos State Catfish and Allied Farmers Association (LASCAFAN), Mr Olatoye Fajimi, stated that many products in the aquaculture sector remain untapped due to a lack of research and development. Fajimi, however, said that to boost revenue generation in the catfish farming, local farmers are beginning to tap into the endless possibilities of value addition.

“In consideration of the aquaculture value chain, there are many things one can do when it comes to fish farming. It ranges from raising parent stocks to growing fish in farms, to processing, and then product development. It is in the product development aspect that we need a lot of young people and entrepreneurs because there are many products that we can develop from our fish. In value addition, we can produce catfish powder, offer wet fillets in frozen form, and provide dried fillets. We can produce fish flakes for exports and have some of our members even turning catfish into the fish ‘killishi or peppered catfish’. We have also formulated a fish cracker. So the possibility of expanding the value chain is endless,” Fajimi said.

According to him, catfish contains a high amount of oil in the visceral section that can be converted into fish oil. Welcome everybody, “We have the oil. Catfish has much oil in the visceral section, which we are now turning into fish oil for industrial purposes,” Fajimi said. The LASCAFAN boss reiterated the association’s efforts to enhance the marketing strategies of local farmers to boost export income. Then, when it comes to the marketing side of it, we are trying to develop what we call the B to B (Business to Business) and the B to C (Business to Consumers) marketing model where we will be able to approach other businesses that need fish like restaurants, hotels and lounges, business to business, kind of relation, then business with direct consumers. We are also targeting direct consumers of our product, so that it can be readily available and affordable, allowing them to enjoy fresh fish in its natural form, rather than stale. There is considerable export potential. We have Nigerians all over the world who desire to have food made from home, and Nigerian catfish is done in very unique ways. That is why we are standardising our operations from the farm to the processing centres, so that we have standard processing facilities and technologies that are export-ready, so that our product can be accepted at the European Union, the US and across the world,” he said.