We specialise in bringing revolutionary high quality Aqua Shrimp Feed supplements to the aqua (Fish & Shrimp) farmers in Australia.
Aquaculture investment fund Aqua-Spark has announced plans to invest in catfish-producing companies in sub-Saharan-African markets as part of its strategy to support the growth of the region’s aquaculture industry.
In a statement Aqua-Spark said it is seeking to invest in large-scale producers that could become platforms for growth for the broader aquaculture industry through local outgrower programs.
“Both in Nigeria as well as in other countries such as Ghana, we’re already on the lookout for catfish producers that can take on this role and need investment to grow,” the Netherlands-based Aqua-Spark said.
Aqua-Spark said it is seeking large aquaculture producers that have the capacity to supply initial resources to small- and medium-sized entrepreneurial aquaculture farms, and then to buy back what those farms produce. That, according to Aqua-Spark, would support “successful growth of the fish, but also the processing into value-added products and the development of a larger market for the catfish products.”
“We hope that these companies become vertically integrated production hubs to provide smaller farmers with access to inputs, knowledge, and markets, and maybe even facilitate financing,” Aqua-Spark said.
Aqua-Spark said for catfish production to grow in sub-Saharan Africa, there needs to be more effort to encourage “consumer acceptance” of catfish as a source of protein.
“The absorption capacity of an increase in catfish production will depend on the extent to which consumers are ready to accept the species as a healthy and tasty source of protein that can compete with tilapia, chicken, and other protein sources,” Aqua-Spark said.
The fund said catfish farming is ideal for sub-Saharan Africa because “the fish easily survives in all kinds of production systems and can be cultivated in low-density, simple earthen ponds, in higher-density concrete or plastic tanks, or in even more intensive recirculating aquaculture systems.”
Furthermore, catfish, unlike tilapia, “is often consumed as a smoked fish means that also in the downstream supply chain, the catfish industry offers job opportunities in the processing segment.”
Diverse catfish production systems such as peri-urban concrete tanks, raceways, and RAS, are suitable in any part of a country like Nigeria and “could become a major part of the solution to meeting the future demand for fish from the growing urban population.”