The Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi commissioned Masheda Foods Ltd Processing Factory located at Buyala along Mityana Road.
Ggoobi commended the proprietors of the catfish processing company (adding value to catfish) for driving the growth of the aquaculture industry in Uganda and contributing to the socio-economic transformation by creating jobs and processing catfish products for export in line with the Tenfold Growth Strategy.
“We are celebrating a profound moment. Opening this facility marks a new chapter for Uganda’s aquaculture sector under one of the four pillars of our ATMS,” said the PSST, adding that the factory is contributing to the fish value chain under the Agro-industrialization pillar and taking Uganda’s quality and finest catfish to the regional and global markets in Kinshasa, Nairobi, and London.
“This is very important for us as a country and the Ministry shall support this factory to scale up market access and the desired technology to achieve our dream of USD 500 billion economy by 2040,” said Ggoobi.
He also said Government has channeled funds through Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) to start the construction of fish feeds factory to solve the challenge of importing expensive fish feeds.
The Executive Director Masheda Foods, Anne Ampumuza in her remarks said the aquaculture industry is growing in Uganda. She said the sector has grown from 2000 tonnes in the early 2000s to more than 120,000 tonnes and contributes about 20% of the national fish production.
“We have invested in modern technology and machines to ensure hygiene, speed, and traceability. The factory is part of a bigger system that connects farmers, drivers, packers and traders,” said Ampumuza.
The catfish products include: smoked fillet, smoked powder and sausages. The factory has 107 fish ponds with a monthly production capacity of 110 tonnes and is integrated from hatchery, feed mill to the state-of-the-art filleting, smoking, packaging lines and cold storage.
