Gladys Asmah, Minister for Fisheries, has told that the government would, from the middle of this year, harvest and process tuna in large quantities for export to European markets under the Phenegan Project. The project is a private Partnership Programme between Ghanaian offshore canoe operators, Dutch and Philippians vessel operators. They will harvest tuna from Ghana to be processed by fishing companies in the country before exporting to the European markets, informed Asmah.
She added that the Netherlands government had given EURO 1 million grant for the start of the project. She toured several companies such as Divine Seafoods Limited, Ghana Protein and West Africa Fishery to assess their capacity for the take off of the project. She informed that the project would change the current practice of exporting country’s fresh tuna as the project aimed at adding value to the fish.
Asmah said that the project would facilitate a rise over the country’s 50,000 tonnes of canned tuna and 70,000 metric tonnes fish in its raw state exported last year. Isaac Appiah, General Manager of Ghana Seafood Management Limited (Managers of Divine Seafoods Limited) said the company deals in fish fillets, prawns, tuna and lobsters and that the major challenge of the company was lack of tuna in the lean season. He said this project would help the company to increase tuna availability.
Lopez Soto, CEO of West Africa Fishery, told the Minister that his company produces 30 tonnes of fresh fish daily for export to Europe and looking forward to increase tuna export this year.
