Driving aquaculture growth in Kenya

At present, local governments and markets are unable to meet this demand. This results in nutritional deficiency and shortages for a substantial part of the population and a lack of food security. Currently, several major challenges inhibit production increase within the fish value chain:

• Lack of economies of scale and the absence of critical mass;
• Insufficient access to high-quality inputs such as stocking material, fertilizer, feed and water;
• Poor farm management;
• Poor animal health management;
• Lack of an integrated value chain including raw materials, inputs, primary production, processing, cold storage and distribution to (retail) markets;
• Lack of local finance, costly debt funding, high transaction costs, commercial risks;
• A challenging business environment (e.g. corruption, formalities, import duties).

Fish is an efficient form of livestock in terms of

• Water usage;
• Feed conversion and
• CO2 gas emissions
• This sustainable source of animal protein offers substantial opportunities to improve food security.
• Financially in reach of base of pyramid

The objective of FoodTechAfrica (FTA) is to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of a fully integrated value chain (fish) in East Africa by combining the strengths of Dutch agro-food companies (mainly SMEs), knowledge institutions, government and their African counterparts. This contributes to the development of local capacity through knowledge transfer, linking existing primary production processes and results in a positive spin-off in terms of higher production, productivity, improved infrastructure and technical capacity, more efficient markets and local entrepreneurship.