Cold Chain Boost as SADC Delivers Refrigerated Truck to Power Zim’s Fish Industry

By Takudzwa Tondoya

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has handed over a refrigerated truck to the Zimbabwe Fish Producers Association (ZFPA) marking a major step toward strengthening cold chain logistics for the country’s fisheries sector.

The handover held in Harare was hailed as a crucial intervention to bridge logistical gaps that have long hampered the efficient distribution of fish from key production hubs such as Kariba to major urban markets like Harare.

“Kariba is in the north part and we are probably 360 kilometres away from Kariba. So, you harvest kapenta in Kariba and transport them 360 kilometres away. Already, that price goes to the kg, but it becomes even worse when you are transporting this kapenta to other parts of the country,” said Obert Jiri, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development.

Jiri highlighted the importance of improving fish production and consumption nationwide, revealing that Zimbabwe still falls drastically short of its national demand for fish.

“Our capacity and our requirement for fish in Zimbabwe is 60,000 metric tonnes. We only produce about 20,000 metric tonnes,” he said.

To close this gap, Jiri announced that the government is scaling up efforts to decentralize aquaculture resources beginning with the establishment of fingerling production centres across all provinces.

“The government has also now started a programme where we have fingerling producing centres in every province so that we can access fingerlings closer to the farms that produce fish,” he said.

Jiri also spotlighted the challenge of fish feed availability, which affects both productivity and transportation viability.

“Our fish are ordinarily fed from Sadza and the local brew remnants, so fish feed is also a big opportunity for most businesses that want to venture into a business for fish,” he said.

Looking ahead, Jiri expressed optimism about Zimbabwe’s potential to not only meet domestic demand but return to exporting fish regionally.

“As the country continues to work on the blue economy with SADC and other partners, the African Development Bank, we want to move our fish sector to produce the requirement of 60,000 metric tons a year and even more so that we can export as we used to do before,” he said.