TOO MANY AGENTS IN DISTRIBUTION CHAIN (SPREAD, JULY 18)

ONE magnificent building that helps to define the landscape at the Tema Fishing Harbour is the Administration Block of the defunct State Fishing Corporation (SFC).
It is commonly referred to as ‘Corporation’, and remains a monument which reminds fishmongers of their good old days with SFC.
Since the collapse of the corporation in 1995, fish storage, preservation and distribution have changed hands with private individuals and companies.
Before its collapse, SFC went fishing with its own big vessels, numbering 20, preserved and stored fish in its 15,000-tonne capacity cold rooms and finally distributed through its cold vans to outlets in all the regional capitals.
The fish, found on the market now, are mostly imported and landed at the fishing harbour, where storage is provided by private cold storage companies which operate from the cold rooms of the divested SFC .
There are other clients who do fishing business at the entrance of the cold room, thereby making fish expensive because they add their profit before selling to fish mongers who do not have direct link with the agents.
In effect, after charging the agent for storage, the cold store operator delivers the fish on demand, but what has contributed most to the exhorbitant price is the number of middlemen between the agent and the monger.
Activities of some of these clients can be said to be a contributory factor to the high cost of fish on the market.
They have also infiltrated the beach and so, when canoe fishermen land their catch, they take stock before selling to the fishmongers at their own price.
Surprisingly, the fishermen themselves are not able to give the cost of fish on demand, but will only direct the buyer to find out from the women, who they describe as 'sit on the boat'.
Mr J.K. Nketiah one time Public Relations Manager of the SFC, outlined some of the factors that led to the collapse of the SFC.
Mr Nketiah stated that in the late 1970s, SFC flourished with a staff of 3,000, who were made up of fishing crew, engineers, administrators, salesmen, drivers, among others.
He disclosed that the Ghana Cold Stores merged with the SFC and adopted the name State Fishing Corporation to enable the two to operate under one umbrella. Mr Nketiah said at the peak of its operations, SFC extended its fishing activities to Angola and Mauritania with its 20 large fishing vessels .
He said these were the key areas where fish was in abundance, but after Angola’s independence, SFC lost its fishing rights at Angolan waters, heralding the beginning of the corporation's woes.
Mr Nketia said later on, Mauritania also came out with some stringent conditions, which compelled SFC to abrogate the agreement and withdraw from Mauritanian waters.
He said before then, plans were rife for the corporation to begin canning of sardines, but this had to be abandoned after losing fishing rights in both Angola and Mauritania.
Mr Nketiah disclosed that with the difficulty of getting sufficient fish in available fishing grounds, the finances of the corporation started to dwindle because the government was not in agreement with suggestions that prices of the commodity should be increased.
According to him, prices were controlled without considering the expenditures of the corporation, leading to financial losses.
Mr Nketiah said problems of the corporation were compounded with some unforeseen circumstances in the early 1980s and dragged on until its final demise.
He said during the divestiture, the SFC's regional cold stores were first to be sold out, missing out on the fact that they could have helped in storage now.
Mr Nketiah said some of the sold properties of the corporation included a three-storey Russian Complex meant for the canning section and training school in fishing. The cold rooms, the SFC workshops and the administration block were all sold out separately.