Fish farmers could start getting ‘quality’ fish feeds locally at lower prices, instead of expensive imported ones, once a factory being set up in Eastern Province’s Rwamagana District gets completed.
Some Rwf1.2 billion has been invested in the factory, according to its owner, Themistocles Munyangeyo, who said it will have a capacity to produce 40 tonnes of fish feed per day. He told The New Times that it is expected the plant will start production in February this year.
Quality fish feed is a crucial component in aquaculture, yet farmers’ access to it has been limited by both shortage of supply and high costs – factors that negatively affect fish farming output and result in the fish being expensive for consumers.
The New Times gathered that some fish farmers resort to importing feed so as to bridge the gap between what is demanded and what the local feed factories can produce.
Celestin Simparimaka, a fish farmer in Karongi District, who has a total of 30,000 fish in his ponds, says that they (he and other fish farmers) import protein-feeds from India and Zambia, at between Rwf1,860 to Rwf2,220 a kilogramme, expressing that such costs are high.
"Fish feed takes the largest portion of my cost of production, that is to say 70 per cent of it. I use 50 kilogrammes on a daily basis to feed my fish,” Simparinka said.
"If there is a potential investor who wants to avail feeds to us, then I am happy that they will make for us feeds that are cheaper than the ones we import from other countries, I will also be able to have access to them anytime,” he expressed, requesting the factory owners to produce feeds with a high protein concentrate "because that is what our local feeds lack”.
It is against such a backdrop that Munyangeyo, the owner of Fine Fish Factory Limited, decided to set it up.
"This factory will have a production capacity of 40 tonnes on a daily basis. Personally, I am a fish farmer and the information I have is that our daily demand for fish feeds does not go beyond 20 tonnes. Therefore, we will meet our demand and even have a surplus to export to other countries,” Munyangeyo said.
"We expect to sell our feeds at as low as Rwf1,150 per kilogramme and a maximum of Rwf1,600 per kilogramme, with the price variation depending on the fish’s stage of growth. Availing cheap feeds to farmers will surely increase output on the market,” Munyangeyo added.
Solange Uwituze, the Deputy Director-General in charge of Animal Resources Development at RAB (Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board), told The New Times that the total quantity of feeds demanded in Rwanda by fish farmers is at least 408 tonnes per month.
With such fish feed numbers, she indicated, 197.5 tonnes (or 48.4 per cent) can be produced in the country, while more than 210.5 tonnes (or about 52 per cent of the total) are imported per month.
She added that these figures are based on current operating farms and they are expected to go up with the increase in intensive fish farming to efficiently feed the fish.
Data from the 2021/22 annual report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources show that Rwanda’s fish production slightly increased from 41,664 tonnes in 2021 to 43,560 tonnes in 2022.