February 21, 2012

 

Belize starts tilapia project with Taiwanese help

 

 

The Belizean government has launched a new five year aquaculture development project with help from Taiwan, which will increase tilapia production in the country.

 

The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, René Montero, signed an agreement to implement the project with the Republic of China's Ambassador in Belize, H.E. David Wu, at the Taiwanese Embassy in Belize City on Monday, February 13.

 

The project will make small-scale tilapia farming a recognised and permanent feature of the agriculture sector in Belize.

 

The agreement calls for a tilapia hatchery centre to be built at Central Farm, to be completed this year.

 

This initial phase of the project will increase production of tilapia fingerlings from 110,000 to one million units by the end of the five-year project period.

 

It will produce 200,000 fingerlings in 2012; 300,000 fingerlings in 2013; 500,000 fingerlings in 2014; 700,000 fingerlings in 2015 and finally achieve one million fingerlings by 2016.

 

This should also reduce the price farmers pay for the fingerlings by at least 20% - from US$0.75 to US$0.60 a pound by the end of the five years.

 

The second phase of the project will focus on increasing tilapia production throughout the country. The third phase will improve the marketing of tilapia.

 

An aquaculture specialist from Taiwan will also help the Ministry of Agriculture to develop alternative feeds for tilapia culture, replacing commercial feeds by as much as 30-35%. The specialist and the ministry will organise a tilapia farmers' marketing cooperative and build a processing centre to help sell tilapia on the local market, creating a demand as farmers increase their production.

 

The agreement is a follow-up to a request made by Ministers Montero, Mark Pech and Hon. Edmund Castro in April 2010, for Taiwan help to develop small to medium-scale aquaculture ventures in Belize.

 

The International Cooperation and Development Fund of the Republic of China (Taiwan ICDF) had sent its project manager to Belize to prepare the agreement and project plan in April 2011 after assessments made by successive Taiwanese delegation of investors in June 2009, and aquaculture specialists in July 2010, to assess the potential of the industry and environment in Belize.

 

These delegations concluded that Belize had suitable land and water resources readily available, which offered great opportunities for the development of freshwater aquaculture.

 

Monday's agreement fulfils a promise made by Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou during his state visit to Belize in May 2009, when he promised Prime Minister Dean Barrow that Taiwan would help Belize develop tilapia farming.