The African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFISHNET) has urged aquaculture farmers to embrace international best practices for global acceptance of Nigerian fish.
AWFISHNET Nigeria President, Mrs Oluwafunmilola Shelika, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
NAN reports that AWFISHNET is a global platform that calls for action on issues affecting women.
It facilitates the development of policies across Africa to enhance the role of the fisheries sector.
Shelika said the major problem hindering the acceptance of Nigerian fisheries and aquaculture outside the country was the non-adherence to regulations and international best practices in fish farming.
“As fish farmers and processors, we have a host of problems regarding the acceptance of our fish outside the borders of this country.
“The major issue is that, we do not have regulations binding on fisheries and aquaculture production in the country.
“This is because, most of the regulations are not enforced by any of the parastatals that are supposed to be in charge.
“This is a very huge problem for us and that is why our aquaculture sector cannot really compete in other markets,” Shelika said.
She said that regulation of the fisheries sector should start from the first stage of fish farming and not during its processing.
“I started as an exporter. I was exporting smoked catfish and unfortunately, the ban came because there was no regulation, and there was nobody looking into what was being churned out.
“The question we should ask is; are the farms where the fishes are being farmed certified for international best practices?
“Is anybody checking what is being done out there?. Because we do not have all that and you know, like the government will say that it does not have enough officers to do that.
“So, these are the things that are not making us to compete in other markets aside the Nigerian market. In Nigeria, just as they say everything is permissible, everything is acceptable,” she said.
The AWFISHNET boss further said that in Nigeria, what people thought they eat was actually not good for their health, either because the processes are not monitored.
“We are far from adhering to international best practices, we do not even follow good manufacturing practices which is a major issue here for us in Nigeria, there is nobody to really evaluate or monitor what has been done,” Shelika said.
She, however, stressed that the various government agencies in charge of fisheries and aquaculture must collaborate to tackle the challenge.
“The way forward is if the government bodies saddled with this can actually do better.
“We have more than four government bodies competing for the same exercises.
“Everybody will say they are the ones in charge of fish. NAFDAC will say they are in charge of fish, FMARD’s Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture will also say they are the ones in charge.
“Because of that, there are double standards. NAFDAC will say this is the standard to use, FDA will tell you there is another standard to go through,” she said.
The AWFISHNET president said the country would move forward if there was an inclusion and collaboration from everyone.
“And collaboration also has to deal with the stakeholders. You cannot collaborate without having the stakeholders during a needs assessment to know what they want,” she said.
She added that the way forward was for everybody to be educated on the regulation to know what was expected and to do the right thing.
