Ghana, others take credit for Nigeria’s smoked fish

This advice was given by Dr Bola Adekoya, consultant partner, Agromen & Company, while talking to Daily Trust at the recent national conference of the Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON) in Abuja.Adekoya said the Nigerian Export Promotion Council has approved the first cooperators-led fish export project in Ijebu-Ode and fish farmers can now have it […]

This advice was given by Dr Bola Adekoya, consultant partner, Agromen & Company, while talking to Daily Trust at the recent national conference of the Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON) in Abuja.
Adekoya said the Nigerian Export Promotion Council has approved the first cooperators-led fish export project in Ijebu-Ode and fish farmers can now have it in every senatorial district or join Fish Export Development Association.
He lamented that fish smoked in Nigeria went through collection points in Badagry, Idi Iroko to Ghana, and when the cat fish gets there, they repackaged and sent it to the UK. He added that Ghana does not produce cat fish but takes it from Nigeria and exports to Europe.
“The British don’t take it from us because they don’t trust us. We can do anything with it. We can degrade the standard,” Adekoya said.
 He said another collection point is in Onitsha from where the fish goes to Niger Republic, which repackages and sell to Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, adding that there is another collection point in Calabar, from where the fish goes to Cameroon which then repackages and sells to other central African countries.
“We are selling fish indirectly through other people and other countries are taking the credit. They don’t know Nigeria is producing that cat fish, because it’s not going there as Nigerian fish,” Adekoya lamented.
He said with the support of other partners like NAFDAC and SON, fish farmers can do it by cooperation, adding that the demand for smoked fish exists everywhere in the continent. “What you sell here N500, sells there for N1,500 at the collection point and it still sells more at the foreign market,” Adekoya said.