SCOTTISH manufacturer Fusion Marine has won an order to supply aquaculture equipment for a new tilapia farm in Ghana in the first modernisation project of this type for the West African country.

Ghana has excellent aquaculture potential but until now has relied on traditional and unsophisticated culture systems. Fusion Marine, which is based near Oban, will initially supply five polyethylene circular fish pens but this number is expected to increase substantially once the farm becomes established.

The new farm will be located downstream from the Akosombo dam on the River Volta. The water is of high quality and the water flow at the proposed farm site is constant as it is controlled through the dam.

The farm is planned for an area where unemployment is high and it is expected to create a substantial number of jobs. It is also within easy reach of the main markets of the capital Accra.

The project will start with a production of 200 tonnes of tilapia per annum but the long-term plan is to reach 2,000 tonnes per annum and then to diversify into marine species along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea.

The new initiative will initially purchase juvenile fish or fingerlings from commercial hatcheries but within 18 months it is planned to have an in-house state-of-the-art hatchery to meet the growing fingerling requirements of the project. The first phase is expected to be completed by September, the new hatchery by the middle of next year, and further expansion of the pen systems by the end of 2011.

Professor Carmelo Agius, Fusion Marine’s international aquaculture consultant, said: “Fusion Marine technology has already proven itself in other parts of Africa and we are optimistic it will contribute substantially to fish pen aquaculture developments in Africa as this industry comes of age in this vast continent.”