Tema, Oct. 9, GNA – Mr. Richester Nii Amarh Amarfio, Secretary for the Ghana Tuna Association (GTA), has advocated for the introduction of Tuna into the daily menu for the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).
Mr. Amarfio, supplying tuna to GSFP is a great idea, but it will require some form of managerial approach on strategies for re-positioning, strengthening and effective delivery and this requires detailed discussion by the stakeholders.
He also urged Ghanaians to protect and sustain the fisheries industry by developing a taste for tuna.
Mr Amarfio, who is also the Director of Operations for Laif Fisheries, stated at the “Ghana News Agency-Tema Regional Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue,” which is a media think-tank platform for commercial and business operators to communicate to the world.
He noted that there was the need to have a stakeholder engagement to revive the industry by taking stock.
He said, “at Mankodze a lot of women are selling tuna, we supply them with tuna to sell, so they make a lot of contributions to the day-to-day activities of places such as the factories that are into cannery and the women who smoke the fish and those who buy from the market”.
Mr Amarfio said even though Ghana had enough tuna to feed the needs of the country and beyond, the European Union (EU) market remained the only hope for the survival of the industry.
“Europeans eat a lot of tuna both raw and canned, so the majority of it goes to the EU market,” he stated.
Mr Amarfio added that “creating an internal market could also come in a form of developing dishes that would make use of tuna,” stressing that, “I have not seen hotels in Ghana using tuna in their dishes apart from the canned ones they use for salads”.
Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the GNA, on his part said, as an industrial hub, we found the need to engage those in the industry on national issues to educate the public.
“As an Industrial News Hub, GNA-Tema has created a platform for industrial players to use, for other stakeholders to reach out in a proactive means, while serving as grounds to address national issues,” he said.
He said it was common knowledge that a lot of things happened at sea and in the fishing industry that the public needed more enlightenment on, therefore the need to engage the GTA to throw light on its sector.
Mr Ameyibor explained that, activities on the sea is one of the most dynamic but under-reported from the media, therefore the Agency had created a platform to offer stakeholders news channel to reach out to the world.
He noted that GNA-Tema office branded as the Industrial News Hub, seeks to help fill ocean news gap, the need for better reporting on sea and fisheries issues, as life on the sea affects the general livelihood people as the level of consumption of fish in the country was large.
