Forex restrictions on fish importation hurting our businesses, importers, traders lament…

Importers and traders in fish business value chain have continued to lament the foreign exchange (forex) restriction imposed on fish importation into the country.

According to them, the forex ban has done them a great deal of harm as sourcing hard currency in the black market has become more daunting with the skyrocketing prices of fish, especially stockfish.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Norwegian Seafood Council Seminar recently in Lagos, the stakeholders urged the Federal Government to consider removal of foreign restrictions on importation of fish.

Specifically,  Mr. Greg Ilobinso, a major importer of stockfish appealed to the government to delist stockfish from lists of items on forex ban so as to make it affordable to end users.

Also speaking, Mrs. Jerry Iwheraka, Managing Director of Friday Consult, said that Nigerians cannot afford to buy stockfish bodies because of the price hence, the increase in the importation of stockfish heads.

Iwheraka also said that government policy on the importation of stockfish will continue to rob the economy of the gains of the trade.

In his opening remarks, the Director for Africa for the Norwegian Seafood Council, Mr. Tronds Kostveit, stressed the need for the Federal Government to remove fish from the list of items on forex ban.

He said Nigeria remained the largest importer of Norwegian seafood, adding that a total of 43,251 metric tonnes of various fishes were imported last year.

He said that mackerel remains the most imported fish product brought into the country with a total of 14,997 metric tonnes, followed by herring with 13,845 metric tonnes, while stockfish recorded a total of 10,740 metric tonnes. He stated that for stockfish heads, a total of 9,925 metric tonnes were imported, while 815 tonnes of the stockfish bodies were imported during the year.

Reacting to the development, some stakeholders told journalists that the low tonnage of the importation of stockfish bodies was due to the forex restriction on the importation of stockfish.

However, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development tasked stockfish and seafood importers on proper documentation in order to avoid illegal importation.