Women fish processors and mongers based in Kpando municipality of the Volta Region are calling on the government to put in place measures that would lead to the construction of a market.
They also want bigger shops as well as processing hubs to assist in providing quality fish to attain nutrition security in the country.
The fish processors, lamented over lack of space for their work, which is making their work unbearable and difficult. They added that their present condition of non-access to a direct market place to market their produce causes them to expose the fish to unhygienic conditions, leading to contamination, which eventually may result in disease outbreak.
Fish processors are mostly seen working and smocking in very small places, making residents in the area always complain of excessive smoke emanating from the houses where the processing takes place.
Owner of one of the fish processing companies, Amenuveve Fishing Processing Centre, Lengebi Charlotte lamented that lack of space makes the work difficult for them, coupled with high prices fish and other inputs such as fuel and cost of labour.
Madam Lengebi who has been in the business of fish processing for the past 25 years said she had to lay off most of her workers from over 60 to about 30 due to the high cost production and inability to pay all of them regularly.
Lengebi Charlotte noted that there is a need for government to come to the aid of fish processors to make life a bit easy for them since they try their best to make sure that the public has enough fish to buy at all times
“We don’t have enough space to smoke or process our fish and our neighbors always complain of the smoke affecting them. Also, most of my workers are going back to being unemployed because of the high cost of living and the fact that I am not able to pay them well and on time. So we need government to help us urgently” Madam Challotte Lengebi said.
Some of the workers also complained about working under hash difficulties due to lack of space, resulting in excessive smoke inhalation which also affects their health. Also, their allowances are too small due to the difficulties their madam faces.
The NDC Women’s Constituency Organizer, Victoria Yayra Afidenyo noted that women in the business of fish processing are going through a lot just to make sure there is enough fish for the public. A situation which she said needs to be looked at by the government.
Victoria Yayra Afidenyo noted that the women are very hardworking, but mostly not too educated. As a result, they need some sort of training to equip them with modern ways of fish processing since they still use the local way of processing, which is firewood.
Madam Afidenyo appealed to government to come to the aid of the women to have more hygienic and effective ways of processing their fish.
