A fish farming project in the Eastern Cape is poised for a massive export order that could see catfish bred in the Karoo exported to Nigeria.
That's according to Phakamisa George, risk capital specialist at the Eastern Cape Development Corporation.
He says the ECDC will become a shareholder in a new company that will be formed out of the Blue Karoo Trust which started the fish farming project in the Graaff Reinet area.
The other shareholders will be Trust founders, Stephen and Liesel de la Harpe and a workers Trust which will hold a 20% stake.
George says an additional R23m loan from the Development Bank of Southern Africa's Green Fund will be used to construct three additional ponds to breed catfish in anticipation of a ramp up in production for the local market.
However, speaking to Algoa FM News on Monday morning, George said their marketing plan took an unexpected but welcome twist.
"We want by the end of the calendar year by December to have three additional ponds because our marketing survey has taken an unexpected twist. We were only looking at supplying (catfish) to South Africa in the first three years, however, there's an interest from Nigeria from a huge retail catering company that is looking at 100 tons of processed fish per annum," .
"So, if we are to accomodate that we need to be fast in developing capacity at farming level, that's what we're intending to do," George said.
He also said that construction of an additional three ponds, commercial scale hatchery and pre-processing line, has begun.
"We've just finished all the pre-commercialisation phase, which is the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment), business planning, market acceptance survey. We've just now started getting into the first phase of commercialisation which is establishing a PTY company where the local Trust owns 20% and all of ECDC's contributions is going to be converted into equity into the operating company."
"We are in an advanced phase with that, we're just waiting the finalisation of the financial model which is also financed by ECDC."
"On completion of Commercial Phase 1, the initiative will boast 10 aquaculture production systems, a commercial scale hatchery, a processing facility and small scale training facilities for both farming and factory operations. Commercial Phase 1 is set to create 815 jobs (direct, indirect and induced), with 3,920 jobs being created by the end of Commercial Phase 2. In this remote rural area, every employed person supports approximately 4,5 dependants, which translates to a total of 17,640 additional people supported by this initiative," said George.
"The construction of the three new aquaculture facilities will justify the establishment of a processing facility in Graaff-Reinet. This is an exciting addition to the Karoo Catch brand which provides an alternative for rapidly declining fish stocks, as a result of climate change, overfishing, and pollution. The Karoo Catch brand is based on fish farming, rather than harvesting wild fish stocks, which guarantees a reliable and sustainable supply of fish," added George.
