The report added that the production of bony fish held the first place of total fish production at 1.5m tonnes (97.0%), crustaceans amounted to 18,600 tonnes (1.2%), other varieties of fish totalled 17,700 tonnes (1.2%), lung fish production recorded 5,900 tonnes (0.4%), and cartilaginous fish and molluscs reached 3,000 tonnes (0.2%). Ahmed El-Said, who runs fish production farms, said that the governmental production of fish is not satisfying at all, adding that the new state-owned farms might increase the production of fish in Egypt if the government knows how to run it in a better way. He believes that fish feed sales will grow by 10-12% during 2017, because of the current expansion in fish farming. He stated that fish farms likewise do not pay taxes since they are mainly illegal—after they stopped renewing their licenses due to the high taxes they used to pay under former president Hosni Mubarak. “95% of the fish farms are not legal, and the government does not know anything about them,” El-Said noted.

Source: Daily News Egypt March 16, 2017 06:00 UTC