A GNA feature by Samuel Akumatey
Ho, Dec. 17, GNA - An entrepreneur, with speciality in the fish processing industry, has advised food processors to modify known food recipes to help offer a wider variety of edibles to consumers.
Mabel Quarshie, 55, and mother of two, quit her banking job in 2014, to start an “Aquatic World”- a fish farm at Nitriku, a suburb of Akuse in the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region.
She began with ten cages, but low profitability caused her to break from the farming for about a-year-and-a-half, during, which she explored fish processing, and eventually settled on mastering the art of making fish sausages.
“During research, I chanced upon fish sausages”, she told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at a stand she had mounted at an Agriculture Fair in Ho, which formed part of the 2019 National Farmers Day event.
She says preliminary production started in her kitchen with samples undergoing passionate critique from friends, whiles she searched the storehouses of information on the internet to develop a product unique to herself.
The reviews were positive, and with enough motivation and encouragement, she made the bold decision to move production out of her home to a befitting rented facility, in 2018. That was the birth of the “Aquatic Foods” Company.
A training opportunity at the Ugandan Industrial Research Institute helped her to perfect the recipe. She could now produce machine dried tilapia (koobi), in addition to a wide array of processed tilapia, made according to customer specifications.
Aquatic Foods also produces fish patty for making burgers and other fish-based fillings, and is on a mission to innovate local foods into as many recipes as possible, starting with fish.
Madam Quarshie says market response to the fish sausage has been amazing - easily become a preference for consumers, seeking to avoid chicken or pork sausages.
Going up the food processing ladder, has not been without challenges - slow public response to innovations, something that kept dragging her down.
There is also the element of slow patronage, due to the fact that innovative, healthy foods are increasingly becoming expensive.
Added to these is poor funding, especially for starters, something that, needs to be tackled.
Her business, located at Sakumono near Tema, from where Aquatic Foods offers neatly packed foods with increasing variety, could expand to create more jobs, if given strong support.
“I'm still researching for more products on the market. Am looking at more innovative ways of processing fish, and they are more in line with foreign methods.
“Most Ghanaians love fish but don’t eat them because of limited options.”
She is eager to set up an entrepreneurial incubation model, to provide an avenue for young people and women to learn skills in fish farming.
This way the youth are going to be transformed into “aqua-prenueurs” to help fill up gaps in the food value chain.
The incubation model started slowly on a small scale - born few months after Aquatic Foods was established in 2018, and has five members so far.
Madam Quarshie has acquired land at Akuse to develop the entire value chain, and is upbeat that within five to ten years, the incubation module would be in place, locally growing fish for processing “in a well-established and hygienic place”.
“Fish processing is less expensive than fish farming, and is easier to profit from,” she says.
“We must not limit ourselves. Let's explore, copy, modify and paste, not just copy and paste.”
Madam Quarshie adds that fresh catfish is an exceptionally tasty treat, but the fish is mostly consumed smoke-dried.
“Catfish can be consumed very fresh. It tastes just like meat and is very palatable.”
Her Company has realized that there is huge demand for alternative fish products on the Ghanaian and the West African market, and is on a mission to meet them.
The fish processing sector requires stakeholder support in creating awareness on clean, and healthy ways of harvesting, storing and processing fish.
Stakeholders would need to make sure that fish handlers do the right things, because “fish is not hard cooked, it must be well preserved when raw”.
Aquatic foods is fast becoming a known brand, offering neatly packed processed fish based products to households, food vendors, retailers, hotels, restaurants and schools, and is readily available for events and pre orders of any kind.
The Company’s operations offers jobs, and creates livelihood enhancement opportunities for the youth, most of whom are engaged in the production.
For a woman who dreamed of becoming self employed by age 50, Aquatic Foods provides the vehicle she needed.
“I got tired and stressed from working at the bank and I wanted to pursue a passion.”
She has formed a “Women in Agribusiness” group to encourage others like herself to venture into the entrepreneurial world.
Samples of her fish sausage, on display at the fair, attracted lots of curious individuals and she had to devise clever ways of not getting every 'testing officer' to sample the limited stock.
Mamaga Ametor II, Paramount Queenmother of Alavanyo Traditional Area, who has come along during the interview, after a single bite of the sausage, nods her head in approval and exchanges contacts with Madam Quarshie.
GNA
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