Fish value addition on the cards

Ashton Mutyavaviri

THE Government has taken decisive actions to promote fish value addition and processing in a significant move to enhance the growth of the fisheries sector.

This comes as the Government pushes to ensure the country achieves a US$1 billion fish industry by 2030.

Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Department (FARD) director in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development’s Mr Milton Makumbe yesterday revealed that Government was working on the adoption of effective smoking and drying mechanisms from countries such as India, where some Government fisheries officers were recently trained in value addition and fish processing.

“There is value addition in the fish industry, which includes traditional gutting, smoking, drying which is prominent in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture,” said Mr Makumbe.

He urged large-scale farmers to venture into things like filleting for high end domestic markets and the export market.

“The target is to improve value addition for small-scale farmers and work on a viable-mechanisms to value addition that adheres to international standards of processing.

“FARD will be working in collaboration with Institute of Agricultural Engineering to trial models of dryers specific to Zimbabwe smallholder farmer needs and have this information cascaded down to farmers,” he explained.

Government has repeatedly urged all producers in the agriculture sector to embrace value addition and establish comprehensive value chains. By doing so, producers can transform their operations into more integrated and efficient systems, increasing the overall value and marketability of their products.

It was also making relentless efforts to enhance the performance of country’s agriculture industry to promote sustainable economic growth.

The aquaculture sector is sluggishly evolving from the woods following a sharp plunge in 2021 in which 5 056, 88 tonnes of fish were recorded down from 15 425, 11 tonnes in 2020, then re-gained its footing to end 2022 with 6 807, 01 tonnes of fish in a development attributed to high production costs and the industry’s fragmented way of doing business.

The capture fisheries industry is also on the rebound, notching a 25 percent positive growth between 2021 and 2022. This was after the sector had recorded an 18 percent decline 2017 and 2019, which was then followed by a 19 percent rise between 2019 and 2020.

Globally, more than one billion people derive their protein and micronutrients from fish, while in sub-Saharan Africa, it is the main or only source of protein to more than 20 percent of the population.