By Leah Malimbasa

Chikwawa, January 10, Mana: Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change Micheal Usi has said fish farming has potential of contributing the country’s economy and become a significant forex earner for Malawi.

Usi made the remarks on Wednesday during a familiarisation tour at Kasinthula Aquaculture Centre in Chikwawa district.  

“For Malawi to develop, we need to export more, and fish is one of the products we can be exporting,” he said adding fish farming industry is already making strides.

“We have been importing fish feed, but we are now producing feed in Malawi, meaning fish production will also grow and today we are here discussing plans to establish an aquaculture park at Kasinthula to grow our economy," he said.

On how to address obstacles to achieve these plans, Usi said bureaucracy should not hinder development.

“There will be investors coming in, so we do not expect an officer to sit on a document and delay progress just because a document is not signed, within two years, the country should improve productivity in terms of fish,” he added.

"We are also learning from other countries that are doing well in this industry and we are assessing ourselves to see how the country can be more attractive to investors. The country has resources in terms of land and water, but we need the investors' financial muscle,” said the minister.

Usi further revealed that plans are under way to establish eight Aquaculture mega farms in the country.

In his remarks, Deputy Director of Fisheries in the department, Brino Chirwa said Kasinthula has about 300 hectares of land and this land is fully utilised through a fish mega farm saying over 3000 tonnes of fish can be produced from Kasinthula Aquaculture Centre alone.

Chirwa described Kasinthula Aquaculture Park as an enormous game-changer project.

“Government is investing a lot through infrastructure development and at the park we will have a step of the fish hatchery, laboratories for research, and a training centre to build capacity of fish farmers,” said Chirwa.

He then concurred with Usi that fish production has the potential of bringing in forex.

“In countries like Philippines, fish business is doing well and Malawi can also do well,” he said.