Taiwan has funded the African country Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, with SZL 52 million (USD 3.07 million) for an aquaculture four-year project to implement tilapia breeding techniques in the country.

Eswatini’s aquaculture consists of small family operations. The main bottlenecks include a lack of steady local fry supply, high cost of imported fish feed, and lack of technical training resulting in low production efficiency.

To stimulate the local aquaculture industry, the Eswatini Ministry of Agriculture hopes to develop breeding techniques through this project to stabilize the market demand for fry and help fish farmers improve their techniques, increase their income, and stabilize the domestic prices, thereby laying a firm foundation for Eswatini’s aquaculture industry.

The project’s primary goal is to introduce tilapia fry breeding and aquaculture techniques establishing a breeding center to produce tilapia fry, a standard operation process (SOP) to improve the quality and cultivation techniques, and train Eswatinian aquaculture technical staff.

The center is expected to be completed in February 2023. The project is implemented by the Taiwan Technical Mission in partnership with the ministry of agriculture and ends in December 2025.