An effort led by New England Seafood, Zimbabwe’s Lake Harvest Aquaculture and Waitrose to improve tilapia-farming practices in Africa is “progressing well,” according to the UK agency Department for International Development (DID).
Partly funded by the DID’s Food Retail Industry Challenge Fund (FRICH), the project is designed to help tilapia farmers in Africa enter the global tilapia supply chain and access higher-value markets like the United Kingdom. Africa produces only about 3 million metric tons of tilapia annually, a fraction of the global tilapia supply.
The project, which is still in its early stages, is a shining example of how FRICH funding is being used to bolster the food trade between Africa and Europe, according to the agency, which is now accepting bids from UK and European food companies for the next round of FRICH funding. Initial bids must be submitted by 20 February, and grants requested from FRICH must be between GBP 150,000 and GBP 1 million, with applicants contributing a minimum of 50 percent of the total project cost.
“The main objective of FRICH … is to improve market access for African food by working with food businesses to develop successful new approaches that can be scaled up,” said Mark Thomas, FRICH project director. “The funding therefore offers excellent opportunities for European food companies to test new business models with a shared risk, while benefiting some of the poorest regions of Africa in a very real and tangible way.”
For tilapia farmers in Africa, the project is already paying off. UK-based supplier New England Seafood is working with Waitrose on a tilapia marketing campaign — tilapia is a relatively new species to UK consumers. New England Seafood is also working with Lake Harvest Aquaculture to improve environmental and fish welfare standards, quality assurance, freezing and handling methods and logistics among tilapia producers in Africa so that they can access the UK market.
