Cedar Seal Agro Limited, a Ghanaian company involved in agribusiness, said it wants an investor to bring cash – as well as know-how – to a project designed to meet fast-growing local demand for seafood.
The company said it is looking to China for USD 10 million (EUR 9.6 million) in funding for a catfish and tilapia farm and processing hub.
Company spokesman Joe Odoi told SeafoodSource that the company has secured access to ten kilometers of the Oti River for aquaculture, as well as 20,000 acres of land for farming catfish and tilapia. The company, he said, “has secured a concession in Ghana CARES Economic Enclave Project under the Government’s transformational agenda in accelerating economic development while transforming lives through agriculture.”
The company said plans to construct earthen ponds for catfish, and cages for tilapia farming and plans an eventual annual output of 100,000 metric tons (MT) of tilapia and 2,800 MT of catfish by 2028 on 10,000 acres. The other half of the space allotted to the project will be reserved, potentially for the cultivation of shrimp and lobster at a later date.
According to Odoi, the local market for seafood in Ghana is robust, and the country imports about 600,000 MT more than it produces.
“Our production is inadequate to close this huge gap of local demand, which grows annually due to our increasing population,” Odoi said.
Outside Ghana Odoi said he also sees demand from Nigeria, Burkina, and Cote D’ Ivorie – with even more potential for export to Europe and the U.S.
He also stressed the security of the site which, he said, sits on a militarized zone under the watchful eyes of the 48th Regiment of the Ghanaian Army, which “naturally wards off any trespassers.”
Odoi said another perk for any investor that helps fund the project: aquaculture output is not liable to tax in Ghana.
