Young entrepreneurs eye fish market opportunities

Seven Malawian youth groups have secured financial support from the African Entrepreneurship Hub (AEH) to invest in technologies in the fish value chain in the country.

AEH managing partner Victor Konde said on Friday in the Capital, Lilongwe, the fish market has many opportunities awaiting innovative youths to explore.

“Fish business is profitable, it only needs sharp minds to devise technologies in value addition and explore the opportunities,” he said when handing over cheques to the groups.

Konde said the country is flooded with imported fish products when similar products can be processed locally and save on foreign exchange.

“I am glad that one of the groups has shown interest in processing fish into sausages. I can imagine how delicious such sausages would be and the opportunities such as jobs it would create,” he said.

One of the groups, Carlo & Ben (CB) Bagging Centre, presented a proposal aimed at maximising profits for the fishers as well as consumers in the fish value chain.

One of the company’s partners, Benedicto Longwe, said the concept aims at consolidating catches from various fishers, sorting, packaging and marketing them.

He said: “There is a ready market for fish everywhere in the country, but one of the major challenges is lack of market information from the source side and inaccessibility to the supply by the consumers, so, this is where we are coming in.”

Another group which qualified for funding presented a proposal to invent a fish vacuum drier, which is aimed at reducing loss of nutrients in the fish as is the case with other drying techniques.

Identification of beneficiaries for funding followed an extensive coaching on concept development by the African Technology Development Forum and an assessment of different concepts. n