Some eighteen (18) tons of unwholesome tilapia have been destroyed by the Fisheries Commission at Asutsuare in the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region.
The shoals of fish which were on Fujian Farm, a Chinese-owned fish farming company at Asutsuare, were allegedly imported into the country from China.
It is believed the strain which could not survive on the farm is genetically modified.
President of the Ghana Aquaculture Association, Jennifer Sodji, in a Citi News said Ghanaians should not panic over the matter.
“…We realized that the fishes were dying and then we alerted the fisheries commission. EPA also moved in there to investigate the fish at the farm. The general public is not supposed to be worried about it because as we speak part of that farm has been closed down,” she added.
FDA destroys 4,500 cartons of expired mackerel
In October 2017 the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), destroyed 4,500 cartons of unwholesome canned fish that were said to be on transit to Togo, but were diverted onto the Ghanaian market.
The unregistered consignment labeled ‘Asahi’ was imported into the country by Dotsico Ventures.
Speaking to the Media, the Head of Communications from the FDA, Kames Lartey, said the products were cleared from the port on September 30, and were set to expire in February 2018, according to their labeling.
“We discovered that ‘So Nice mackerel’ and Asahi mackerel were shipped into the country by Dotsisco Ventures, but the documentation covering them indicated that they were on transit to Togo,” he said.
As the consignment was not destined for the Ghanaian market, the authorities at the Tema Port were not required to check the contents of the containers.
Ghana imports 60% of fish consumed
Ghana, which consumes over 950,000 metric tons of fish annually, currently imports over 60 percent of its fish because the country is unable to meet the demand locally.
Ghana in 2016 imported $135 million worth of fish because of the reduction in the country’s fish stock.
“We have a deficit of over 60% of production of fish in Ghana. So we import over 600,000 metric tonnes of fish and we produce less than 400,000. At the moment we have our stocks depleting steadily and we really have to do something quickly about it else we lose our stocks entirely,” the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye said in September 2017.
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By: Kojo Agyeman/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
