The Kwara Fish Farmers Association has warned that the price of fish may rise soon if Governnment fails to give Foreign Exchange to importers.
The acting chairman of the association in the state, Mr Buhari Sulyman gave the warning in a statement on Tuesday.
According to Sulyman, sudden rise in the cost of feed was a serious source of concern at this period.
He said that in recent times most importers of feeds have suddenly increased their prices citing scarcity of foreign exchange among others as excuse.
”The development is worrisome and should be looked into immediately by the government as this will impact negatively on the agriculture value chain.
“The cost of fish will rise astronomically and we believe this will be a big burden on the citizens at this period.
“We, hereby, appeal to the Federal and State Governments to urgently intervene, ” the acting chairman said.
He said part of the suggestions proffered by the association was for the government to ease access to procurement of forex for fish farmers.
”The procurement of forex should be through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other windows even to other farmers,” Sulyman said.
He also asked for waivers and tax holidays to fish feed importers to enable them import more feeds at subsidized rate.
He added that there should be soft intervention of credit facilities to fish farmers through their various associations in this regards.
“We want government to make adequate waivers or mobility passes for the transportation of fish and its products across the country during the lockdown.
“This we believe will not jeopardize the efforts being put in place by the federal government to mitigate the effects of the hardship of the Coronavirus pandemic,” he said.NAN
