The minister for fisheries and aquaculture development, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, has said that tilapia is safe for consumption.

In an interview with the GNA on Tuesday, Afoley Quaye urged Ghanaians not to stop consuming Tilapia, which is a delicacy in the country.

She said the recent Fujian Farm tilapia death that occurred in Asutuare in the Shai Osu-Doku District of the Greater Accra Region was farm specific, which had been taken care of, with the about 20 tonnes of dead fishes buried deep, amid police surveillance on and off the farm.

“I want to assure the general public that this is a farm-specific problem, it hasn’t happened on any other farm apart from the Fujian farm and that farm has been closed down. So I want to assure the general public that tilapia in Ghana is wholesome and we can consume tilapia from other recognized sources. We shouldn’t be afraid,” Afoley Quaye said.

The minister said in the interview that samples of water, feed, and dead fish from the Fujian farms in Asutuare had been taken to the laboratory to ascertain the cause of the death of the fishes.

Her remarks follow widespread fear in the country that the dead tilapia from the Chinese farm in Asutsuare had found its way onto the market It was reported that fishmongers within the Asutsuare area were carting shoals of dead tilapia from the Fujian farms to process to 'koobi'.

This led to the decline in the patronage of the fish as people were scared to consume the fish out of fear of getting poisoned.