Small-scale aquaculture producers have emphasized the need to control and set guidelines for the pricing of products like tilapia and catfish.
They maintained that a pricing regime was required in the current context, when production costs were increasing rapidly, to regulate the actions of middlemen (intermediaries), who they claimed were making substantial profits at the expense of farmers.
They claimed that some of the middlemen bought aquaculture products at the farm gate for less than their production costs and then resold them to generate obscene profits.
Discussions at the start of a workshop for small-scale fish farmers in the aquaculture value chain at Peduase in the Eastern Region were dominated by the producers’ worries, which bordered on unfair pricing practices in the aquaculture sector.
It is anticipated that the three-day course, which started yesterday, will increase the farmers’ capacity and competitiveness in the field of operational financial management.
The Ashanti, Eastern, and Volta regions each have three contestants.
The Ghana Aquaculture Association (GAA) is organizing the workshop in collaboration with the Chamber of Aquaculture Ghana and the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) Program of the American Soybean Association (CAG).
Unity
Francis de Heer, the GAA’s national organizer, urged cooperation among members.
We have observed that the intermediaries begin setting the pricing, which the farmer is forced to pay after they realize the fish have already been removed from the fish pond and cannot be given back since they will perish.
He declared that the GAA will now embrace Nigeria’s system, in which farmers set the prices for their produce.
The government may create intentional policies to assist the expansion of the aquaculture business, according to Kwabena Gyimaning, the 2021 Best Fish Farmer in the Ashanti Region.
He demanded a decrease in fish imports to increase domestic output.
Significance
Jacob Adzikah, the Chief Executive Officer of the CAG, noted that the program was created to give smallholder fish farmers the tools they need to calculate their production costs and set fair pricing for their catch.
“This training will go a long way to strengthen the farmers’ abilities to define the margin for their work, establish the proper fee, and determine their final production,” he said.
According to John Domozoro, a consultant with WISHH, the training was a practical course that will equip participants with knowledge of financial management in aquaculture production.
