Saturday I headed out to Uganda to work with fish farming there.
The annual harvest volume of salmon in Norway accounts for about 1,7% of global aquaculture volume of aquatic animals, and about 2,6% of global finfish aquaculture. So there is more out there than salmon! One species is tilapia with more than 90 countries harvesting an annual global volume of about 7 million metric tons or about 3,3 times the volume of global salmonids (Atlantic salmon, Coho salmon and Rainbow trout) production.
What is the connection to the salmon industry in Norway? The short answer being; knowledge transfer and company income taxes. That is, company income taxes from among other the salmon industry that are allocated to development aid through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).
My trip is about spending Norwegian tax revenues, disseminated through Norad, for the purpose of making an impact on job creation, nutrition and food safety by development of small-scale tilapia aquaculture in Uganda.
Important to say, I am not alone! I will introduce you to the amazing local Ugandan team later who is carrying out the work on the ground.
———- for the next letter:
Important to say that Caritas Norway and Caritas Uganda are playing important roles as
the work on tilapia aquaculture is a relatively small component of a larger development
program for the purpose of empower small scale farmers in agriculture production over
a five year period from 2023 – 2027.