The Government and partners have available over fifty million US dollars to finance small-scale projects aimed at the massification of aquaculture in the country, with greater emphasis on the production of shrimp in captivity.
The aim of this funding is to stimulate youth entrepreneurship in the area of aquaculture, strengthen company capital, increase access to animal protein to combat malnutrition, generate income and increase the country’s foreign exchange through exports.
The Minister of the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries, Augusta Maíta, who presented the information last Saturday in Inhassunge district, in Zambézia, said that the small scale aquaculture project will be launched next May and, at the moment, preparations are being made for that purpose.
Augusta Maíta said that part of the beneficiaries of this funding will be the finalists of the Eduardo Mondlane University’s Higher School of Marine Sciences in Quelimane and young people from the Inhassunge communities who are being trained at the Aquapesca company.
Maíta said that the beneficiaries will have to present a business plan and the companies need to restructure themselves to have access to funding in order to develop their activities.
As part of monitoring the activities of the ministry she heads, Augusta Maíta worked in Inhassunge district where a company is re-launching the production of captive shrimp for export.
Last year, ProAZUl (ex-Fundo Pesqueiro) and Aquapesca signed a memorandum under the “More Fish” project worth one million three hundred dollars to provide additional funding for the initiative to transfer technology to local communities in Inhassunge in partnership with the Eduardo Mondlane University School of Marine Sciences.
In less than a year after the funding was granted, the minister went to assess the project and was impressed as it was possible to increase the production area by seven hectares with a production of 40 tonnes of shrimp.
According to the minister, the Aquapesca company is transferring knowledge to communities and young finalists of higher education in aquaculture, which will allow with the funding, to open a new front of young entrepreneurs in the industry.
According to the minister, the memorandum also provides for the company to absorb 200 trainees and those who are not integrated will be the first beneficiaries of the small aquaculture project. She stressed, however, that this is a nationwide initiative for which she invited young people and companies to restructure.
Aquapesca plans this year to export 240 tonnes of shrimp to the European market, 40 of which are produced within the scope of the “More Fish” project with the involvement of communities and university students.
The company’s production director, Vicente Ernesto said that production had been interrupted for six years due to a disease, which required new investments in the entire production infrastructure estimated at over US$5 million.
Currently, 67 graduates of the Marine Sciences degree course at Eduardo Mondlane University are undergoing technical-professional training.
The Minister of Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries also worked in Quelimane, Pebane, where she inaugurated the biggest fish selling market.
