Ghana stands making billions of dollars from shrimp farming if the industry is nurtured and developed, according to Sherry Ayittey. According to the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Ghana has the potential of rearing shrimps along the coast from Aflao in the Volta region to Axim in the Western Region. She made this observation to the media at Ada during a visit to a shrimp farm, Ghavie in Ada. The project which is a private joint venture between Ghanaians and a Vietnamese is receiving high patronage from the local market. The minister said government is committed to promoting aquaculture particularly tilapia and shrimp farming in the country to create jobs, wealth, achieve food security ,improve the nutritional status of the people and also export to earn foreign exchange. She commended the management of Ghavie Shrimp Farming for their initiative in the multi-billion dollar industry which will encourage others to also move onto it and provide an alternative livelihood for canoe fishermen She pledged the ministry’s support to develop and grow the industry with the necessary policy framework and partnerships to maximize benefit and also make it competitive on the market to guarantee good returns on investment. Accompanied by her deputy, Hon Okitey Dua were conducted round the hatchery and the breeding grounds by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Bright T. Amlalo. He said even though the project potential is high, the startup cost can jeopardize its viability so he urged for governments support. He said the project is expected to create over 2000 jobs for Ghanaians within a period of 5 years, provide alternative do-able and profitable livelihood for the coastal communities, and reduce the burden on the over-exploited dwindling and collapsing marine stocks.

In his address,the scientist in-charge of the project ,Ayaa Kojo Armah gave a historic background to Ghavie Aquaculture Limited which was formed by Ghanaian and Vietnamese nationals in 2013 with purpose of venturing into mariculture at Ada. According to him, Ghavie is not the first entity to attempt shrimp mariculture in Ghana but gave up for one reason or the other until Mr. Le a Vietnamese American, whose country is among the top global producers with the idea of multi -purpose shrimp farm involving the cultivation of rice and other vegetables in a rotational manner came in. He said, many people have been to Ada over the past decades in an attempt to grow shrimps. “I personally have been involved with at least two of such groups in the late eighties and early to mid-nineties, from about 1985 to 2000” he said. Led by the Chairman, Mr. Bright Amlalo, “the idea was accepted and the Ghavie Board was born but not without challenges but persisted and survived. Our apparent success over others, to me as a technocrat well- versed in fisheries and aquatic science, was the advice from our hard working Vietnamese counterpart to construct a hatchery.” If you can hatch it, Mr. Armah, you should be able to grow it” Mr. Le often said to me. Mr. Le spends most of his days in Ghana at Ada. He has been our lynchpin and has remarkably endured and braved all the odds against the success of this pioneer shrimp farm”. According to him with limited resources, a hatchery was made at a great risk not knowing whether the tiger shrimps would respond to the climate of Ada. I certainly knew we could use the hatchery for other purposes as well. We hired excavators and dug ponds, we credited fuel, and we paid for wages believing in the mighty hand of God for breakthrough. We wrote proposal and business plans and submitted them to banks for support. None was interested because of the novelty of the venture and the risks involved. We run out of money at critical stages and had to even borrow from one of the shylock microfinance banks with huge interests. We never lost hope. We finished the hatchery. What next with the hatchery in place? We began searching for females to hatch. We travelled to several coastal fishing towns until we got the first spawnable female at Apam. I knew we should be able to get females because several offshore trawlers routinely catch the tiger shrimp, which they call prawn, in their catch. We in the university of Ghana, where I have spent the better part of my lifetime teaching and researching in marine and fisheries science, know that shrimpers catch usually comprise about 10 – 15% tiger shrimps. So, we were confident and I kept assuring our board members we will get there, though, such unchartered waters. To be frank we had our fair share of fright when females we brought to the hatchery were dying while the males survive!!! But perhaps that was God’s divine way of opening another opportunity. We caught a local female white shrimps and added to try it out as we seem not to be successful with the target tiger shrimp. To our surprise, it hatched and grew so well and demonstrated. Ghavie foresees benefits to the people of Ghana within a very short period of time which we are hopeful Government will take over and promote We would like to borrow some of the fishery statistics by the ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development to drive home the significance to national economy of the breakthrough in shrimp mariculture we are witnessing today. Ghanaians fish stocks are fully or over-exploited with marine fisheries in serious decline due to intense fishing pressure by offshore foreign trawlers and purse seiners, artisanal beach seeing and lagoon harvesting of juveniles. Fish imports in 2012 were 175,341 mt and exports were 46234 mt indeed vision will not only immensely minimize the disparity but will have the potential of reversing this unhealthy trend where we import more fish than we export.