Yabi Bénetedi Akpata

Production of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) Yabi Bénetedi Akpata

Faced with the situations of population growth and high rate of urbanization in our sub-Saharan countries, the trends in demand for fish are increasing. Meanwhile, we are witnessing the stagnation of local fisheries production, which has undoubtedly led to a deficit in supply, which in turn creates food and nutritional insecurity when we know that the quality of proteins and fatty acids in fish are of very high value. To compensate for this deficit caused by the inability of local production to cover demand, two options have emerged: import and production. Like several sub-Saharan countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo has mainly turned to imports, which unfortunately do not seem to be the best option for several reasons. Imported fish suffers first of all from the quality as several studies have shown, but especially from the setbacks in the international transport system as the Corona virus pandemic and its impacts illustrate so well.