Hi Guy,
There is not enough space and time on a
discussion group board to expand on the
different business models and different
marketing strategies available......nor am I
an expert (I am sure there are others who
have written books about this
stuff?)......not sure what you mean by
suitable though - do you mean economically
sustainable? If so guess it depends on the
business model adopted.
Importantly whatever production model one
undertakes (as this after all really a site
about African aquaculture producion) success or
failure - gauged
by economic sustainability and growth - is
very dependent on the "marketability" of the
final offering.
On your second paragraph - surely smoking
and/or drying is just another route to
market and another offering.....especially
so where there is no ice or refrigeration
logistics to take something fresh to a
marketplace. Alternative would be no sale at
all. So, in that "business model", profit
margin may not be as large (but that is mute
anyway if no option) but at least it is not
a write-off......
I think one will find that if domestic
decision makers, with all the best
intentions in the world to help develop
countries, tried to instigated market
protection there would be stiff resistance
by the communities that tend to run the
commercial import/export trade in many
countries in Africa - be they nationalised Indian,
Lebanese, Chinese or Europeans. Interests
and political will do not always agree.
Can you explain what is so obvious about the
reason that catfish fish farming took off in
Nigeria.....and why a similar development
(or business?) model wouldn’t
work elsewhere in Africa?
Salut,
Patrick
On 12/09/2011 09:03, Guy Delincé
wrote:
Hi Patrick,
For the sake of the discussion, it would be
nice if you could expand on the business
models and their market strategies that you
envisage or find suitable.
As for smoking or drying farmed fish, this
does not consider that the fish
traditionally smoked or dried in capture
fisheries, is been processed because it
cannot be sold fresh; it is processed just
before it is about to rot (in the best
cases) (even to hide the taste). This fish
fetches a lower price than the fresh one.
Adding production costs through processing
will thus reduce your margins.
Convincing domestic decision-maker to
protect their markets will be very
difficult, unless they have a particular
stake in that sector.
Of course, there is a major distinction
between agriculture-led countries and
countries where industrialisation
is developing. The reason that catfish fish
farming took off in Nigeria is obvious, a
similar development model wouldn’t work in a
country like Guinea, Burundi or CAR (if the
country still exists ...)
Cheers,
Guy Delincé.
Le 09/09/2011 20:50, Patrick Wood a écrit :
Hi Guy,
I think that you have mistakenly used a
logistics export model for high value game
fish (weekly prices, air freight, auctions)
that is not applicable to a low cost
commodity traded product like tilapia.
The reason Chinese tilapia
are cheap is simply because they are
exporting to Africa 20%+ water pick up in
the fillet using polyphosphates,
not to mention playing with the glaze so
even the net weights are often lower than
stated. Also Chinese producers get export
subsidies. So, in a lot of ways it is not
about aquaculture at all.
Producers in Africa can go the Chinese way
in the local marketplace or differentiate
their products (fresh and without
chemicals), smoked, dried, etc.
We started South American tilapia exports with
frozen to the US but this soon developed to
a fresh fillet system as Chinese frozen tilapia made it
impossible to compete.
Of course a methodology much used in other
countries to promote local industry (Brazil
used it for many years) is to ban imports or
tax them in such a way as to allow local
competition or encumbent
industries to survive. Even the US does it
now with the Southern shrimp
alliance....taxes are then directed towards
helping internal industry - but this takes a
lot of political will and probably a lot of
mud slinging about denying Africans food
security etc......
...........according to Jason Clay this will
indirectly happen anyway as producers from
SE Asia will re-route products to feed the
burgeoning developed countries population
and ever increasing demand for seafood.
I guess that the old adage for seafood also
stands even in Africa - everyone talks about
quality but buys on price.
Patrick