The fish has landed in Narraville

Fish cold storage, processing and selling has arrived at Narraville. A state of the art commercial cold store and fish processing facility was inaugurated on Friday by Ehika Fishing under the trade name CPJ Commercial Cold Store (Clive Peter Johannes). The Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Bernhardt Esau.
The facility was developed at a cost of N$30 million, financed by shareholders equity and a loan by the Development Bank of Namibia.
The facility will employ 40 permanent workers at full capacity. The cold store is equipped with the latest available technical innovation available on the market and has a capacity of 1200 ton. It would also ensure efficient work manoeuvring and turn-around times of product.
Ehika Fishing’s Managing Director, Mr Rojo van Wyk, said at the inauguration the company is on a quest to revolutionise the horse mackerel industry.
Not only has the company adequate cold store facilities, but Ehika also unveiled its state of the art horse mackerel processing facility that augments the cold store. Ehika showcased to guests at the inauguration value added horse mackerel product that include horse mackerel sausages, horse mackerel fish cakes, mince as well as omega meat loafs.
Van Wyk further explained the facility will also receive frozen bycatch that would be processed and available for sale to the public through a fish shop that opens its doors in the first week of December.
Ehika Fishing also announced its social responsibility drive, to plough a segment of its profit back into the communities within which it operates, as the Clive Peter Johannes Family Trust. The Trust is managed by the children of the late Mr Johannes. Apart from assisting in carrying expenses of the frail care of Ms Johannes, the widow of the late Clive Johannes, the Trust also assists Fishermen’s Widows Trust and assists with bursaries, soup kitchens, youth centres and children- and old age centres.
The Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources at the inauguration again stressed the importance of value adding of Namibia’s horse mackerel fish resource.
Traditionally, horse mackerel is a low value fish aimed at low-income markets in West Africa as primary source of protein. However, the Namibian Government wants to change this market status quo to value adding which creates jobs and increase profit earnings on value added products. Minister Esau applauded Ehika Fishing to embark upon this route.
“I wish to remind all fishing right holders that value addition in fisheries is the best bet in terms of future business success.
It is a win-win situation for both the private sector and Government. When you add value, you maximize on the value retained locally, and Namibia wins because you retain value addition jobs and skills locally, instead of exporting them to our market destinations”.