According to the fishermen, the supply of premix fuel has been irregular, hence driving many of the fishermen out of business as they cannot go to sea.
At a press conference in Apam Friday, November 30, this year, the linguist of Apam Chief Fisherman, Ebusuapayin Kojo Mensah, said due to the irregular supply of the premix fuel, it has become like cocaine at the beach, adding that fishermen had to struggle to get it.
According to him, many fishermen at Apam are going through a lot of difficulties due to the irregular supply of the premix fuel.
For his part, the 2016 Gomoa West District Best Fisherman, Mr Amos Appiah said there are over 500 canoes at the beach and that many of them have been parked due to lack of premix fuel.
"There are about 500 canoes here, but we get very small quantity of the premix fuel," he said, pointing out that "because we don't get enough premix fuel, we cannot go far on the sea to get a good catch."
Barrels
Mr Appiah said at least, fishermen at Apam needed about 12,000 barrels of premix fuel every week, but they are only given 3,000 barrels.
He expressed the concern that even the 3,000 barrels they are given, the premix fuel committee at the place, shared among themselves about half of the fuel, leaving many of the fishermen without the premix.
According to him, some of the premix committee members after taking the fuel the distributors resell them at higher prices to the fishermen.
Mr Appiah has, therefore, appealed to the government to at least, increase the supply of the premix from the current 3,000 barrels to 9,000 barrels.
Outboard motors
He also called on the government to make outboard motors available to fishermen as many fishermen whose outboard had spoilt cannot go to the sea.
He said for almost two years now, fishermen cannot get outboard motors to buy, hence forcing many out of business.
“Many of the canoes here cannot go to the sea because they have problems with their outboard motors and they cannot get some to buy,” Mr Appiah said, stressing that fishermen had to spend over GH¢17,000 buying it from private individuals.
"We all have families….and we cannot stop working. It will be difficult for us to feed our families if we don’t go to the sea. Government must be interested in our work,” he said.
According to him, the industry employs a lot of people and that if government allows the industry unintended to, it will create problems not only for the players but the country as a whole.
The 2017 Gomoa West Best Fishermen, Mr Kofi Mensah, said although they have been receiving the premix, it was not enough and expressed the hope that government would work to resolve the challenges confronting the sector.
Premix
Interestingly, as of the time of the press conference, there was a tanker offloading a premix fuel for the fishermen. Read Full Story
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