Govt hopeful US catfish ban will be lifted soon – Mustapha

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha (second from left) at the PSI plant (Ministry of Agriculture photo)

The beleaguered catfish industry worth an estimated $1.8 billion may soon get a new lease on life if, as the Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha hopes, the government is successful in having the ban on exports to the US removed.

A release from the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday reported that the comment was part of the remarks made by the minister during a tour of the Pritipaul Singh Investments Inc’s Fish and Tuna Processing Facility. It stated that the government’s intention was to move “swiftly” to restore life to the productive sectors, including the fisheries sector and one of its measures was to “significantly” re-duce the cost of production.