Malawi is currently sailing through troubled waters ranging from poor sales from the country’s major foreign earner tobacco, low yields due to the floods and the prolonged dry spell that hit most parts of the country among others.
As the country is grappling with these challenges and looking into other alternative measures Muhammad Ismail Aboo, Industrial Manager for Chambo Fisheries has asked government to consider investing in the Aqua culture industry as one of the alternative measures to improve the country’s ailing economy.
Following the dwindling of fish especially the favorite Chambo on Lake Malawi which is highly demanded on both local and international market Aboo said the country’s economy can improve if government considers of investing in other alternative sources of income like the Aquaculture industry.
“Malawi has not taken off but with huge investment, Malawi can be a key member in exporting fish and government should give incentives to those investing in this industry as well as improve rules and regulations of investing into the aquaculture industry,’ he said.
He said there aim for starting the Chambo Fisheries was to supply fresh fish to the nation and he was quick to say they are failing to meet the demand.
Aboo also urged government to work within improving power generation sector saying that as a company, they survive on electricity and lose a lot when there is no power supply.
He further said the reason for venturing into the industry was the fact of declining in number of fish in lake Malawi which widens the chances of marketing.
“What Chambo Fisheries has done, no one in the aquaculture industry has achieved. We have a capacity of producing 100,000 tons of fish per annum. The other reason for opening this company was to protect the natural resources because we drain our own water through the processes of fishing,” he said.
He also attributed that so far they have not received any complaint from anyone since they started harvesting the fish in 2007 which are supplied to Super Halaal Meet, Malawi Sun Hotel and many other outlets.
Studies have shown that Chambo Fisheries is the largest bio flock tank farm in Africa in which its opening came at a time when Chambo stocks in Lake Malawi fall sharply over the couple of years resulting in the skyrocketing of prices on the market and the project started in 2006 with an investment of money amounting to MK6.5 billion.
