Iceland has expressed interest in Ghana’s fishing industry, hoping to introduce options that will help boost the sector.

The Nordic island country of Europe located in the North Atlantic Ocean is in the 19th place among leading fishing nations in the world, with 1.2 % of the total world’s catch. Europe is the largest market for Icelandic seafood products, with approximately 70-80% share in recent years.

Iceland is the fourth largest exporter of fish and fishery products to the EU after Norway, China and Ecuador in value terms. In 2013, Iceland’s exports totaled more than €945m which is equivalent to 5.4% of all EU fish imports

The European side wants to have a pact with its West African counterpart to develop and build capacity as well as do business.

Ghana’s Minister of Planning Prof George Gyan-Baffour has welcomed the initiative, adding it will help transform the fishing industry.

Speaking at the sidelines of the ongoing annual IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington D.C, USA, Prof. Gyan-Baffour stated the deal will be finalised in the coming days, revealing Iceland already has a contact person in Ghana exploring possibilities.

“Iceland is interested in helping in the area of aquaculture. They want collaboration in order to improve our ability to do regulated fishing in the sea,” Prof. Gyan-Baffour told the media after meeting the Fisheries Minister of Iceland.

He added: “The second area is marine management – small-scale fishing that is environmentally sustainable. And the third area is general capacity building which will require training.

This is not only Iceland but the World Bank is getting involved in the process so it is both bi-lateral and multilateral in one.

“The collaboration will help improve on our fishing industry… About 60% of our protein is from fish and we have the best Tuna producer in the area and it is necessary to have that collaboration since they have expertise in the area more than we do,” the MP for Wenchi asserted.