The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye has stated that the two Chinese nationals who are said to have imported unwholesome tilapia into the country did so in contravention of the law.
According to her, there is a current ban on tilapia importation hence anybody found to have imported such product into Ghana breaches the law.
The Ghana Police Service is currently on a manhunt for two Chinese nationals who are said to have imported unwholesome tilapia into the country.
According to the Police, they have a bench warrant to arrest Zhang Ming alias Gary and Chu Yong Shuai whose 1,310 cartons of tilapia according to the Foods and Drugs Authority were unwholesome.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, Afoley Quaye said “the law enforcement agencies have every right to look for such people and prosecute them because it is against our law.”
Ghana imports 60% of fish consumed
The Minister also said Ghana imports over 60% of its 950,000 metric tons of fish it consumes annually.
Afoley Quaye, who blamed the imports on the steady depletion of Ghana’s fish stock said her outfit has put in place measures to arrest the situation.
“We have a deficit of over 60% of production of fish in Ghana. So we import over 600,000 metric tonnes of fish and we produce less than 400,000. At the moment we have our stocks depleting steadily and we really have to do something quickly about it else we lose our stocks entirely,” she said.
