The federal government says Nigerians demand for fish exceeds 3.6 million metric tons but the country is only able to produce about 1.2 million metric tons.

“The Minister of Agriculture has a very big passion for fishing production because we believe that fish is the cheapest source of protein and the total fish for the country is more than 3.6 metric tons,” according to Ime Umoh.

Mr Umoh, who is the Director, Fisheries Department in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, made this known on Monday at a three-day dialogue in Abuja.

The ‘Regional Economic Communities (RECS) implementation of Fisheries Governance Project phase 2’ is co-hosted by the African Union Development Agency, and the African Union-InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources, with support of the European Union, EU.

Speaking further, Mr Umoh said: “But we are not able to meet up this target because of some of the issues that we are going to be discussing in this dialogue.

“We are only able to produce about 1.2 metric tons in all the sub- sectors in the industrial, the aquaculture, and also the artisanal sub sector.”

The director further revealed that the Nigerian fish industry can only produce 1.2 million metric tons of fish from industrial, artisanal and aquaculture sub-sectors.

(NAN)