In a bid to increase fish production and exports, Government in conjunction with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have embarked on a capacity building campaign to promote aquaculture production and exports. Speaking during the fisheries stakeholders workshop that was held on Tuesday at Imperial Resort Beach Entebbe, Edward Rukunya the director fisheries resources in the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that government has focused it’s attention on promoting aquaculture to address the stagnating fish exports which currently stand at 17,000 metric tonnes generating USD 134m approximately.
Rukunya disclosed that government has now set a target to increase aquaculture production from the current 100,000 metric tonnes to 300,000 metric tonnes in the next five years which will be exported mainly to the European Union.
The 300,000 metric tonnes aquaculture Production according to Rukunya are expected to generate USD 1.4m in the next five years. He hailed the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development for equipping fisheries sector officials with skills and knowledge to develop better strategies on how to deal with the several challenges that are hindering fish Production including limited funding and limited infrastructure.
Uganda, Comoros, Mozambique, Cambodia and Myanmar are the only five countries that are benefiting from the UNCTAD Pilot project.
