Mustapha laments rise in price for brackish water shrimp

Some of the shrimp farmers at the meeting (Ministry of Agriculture photo)

-despite gov’t investment in production

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has expressed his dissatisfaction with the increase in the price of brackish water shrimp despite the heavy government input in boosting production.

According to a Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) press release on Saturday, Mustapha informed shrimp farmers at a meeting at the Albion Sports Complex, Region Six that while the brackish water shrimp pond programme was approximately 75 percent completed and that the industry is likely to experience further growth, the price for brackish water shrimp has also increased. This, he noted, should not be the case.

“So far, we were able to complete about 75 percent of the ponds. Initially, we had a list of about 80 farmers from Region Six. This was for phase one of the project. We added some additional farmers to the list who will be a part of phase two of the project. When we’ve completed phase one, we’ll start work on the additional ponds,” the release quoted Mustapha as saying.