September 26, 2007

Nigerian catfish group to tighten feed quality control

The Catfish Farmers Association of Nigeria (Cafan) has established a national Fishfeed Evaluation Committee to halt imports, sales and distribution of foul fish feeds in Nigeria.

The committee will draft recommendations enforced by government to stop the importation of expired fishfeed into the country.

Committee chairman Dr Samuel Talabi said that a list of feeds will be produced for Cafan to accredit.

On the other hand, Cafan president Chief Tayo Akingbolagun's will outright ban the importation of sub-standard feed or feed that is already expired.

He said the usual lifespan of most feed should not be more than six months, however, feeds are stored longer in manufacturers' stores overseas before exporting to Africa, thus the spoilage.

Importers just clean up the batch numbers and expiration dates with new numbers and dates, he added.

The committee, among other terms, will also propose proper packaging of the fish feed and labelled to indicate their composition, batch numbers, expiration and manufacture dates.

Another task will be to set up a procedure for fish feed evaluation in order to ascertain suitability, quality and price in the Nigerian market.