Rebecca has written to finfish.org as she is conducting a project on the size and scope of the Austrlalian Barramundi  market.

Rebecca is looking for information on the following:

• Current product available (by product – wild v farmed, fillets v whole fish etc);
• Competitive context (suppliers, imports etc);
• Size of market in each state;
• Current supply chains;
• Current quality systems;
• Marketing strategies.

If you have information on any of the above, or could point Rebecca in the direction of someone who does, please comment on this post.

This concept interested me and I’ve been doing some research on some existing co-ops.

Broken Bay Oysters is one. They faced a tough problem a number of years ago and through grouping their funds were able to invest in the technology necessary to solve their predicament.

This story can be read at the link below;

http://www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au/Article.aspx?ArticleID=234954

Here’s an example of a much larger scale co-op that represents a range of organic foods in Switzerland. Even though it’s not a purely aquaculture based co-op, it is funding important research into 1) processing of organic aquaculture products and 2) natural antioxidant constituents in fishmeal.

Here’s some information;

http://www.growfish.com.au/content.asp?contentid=3729

Getting back to purely aquaculture co-ops – Read this excerpt about the Texas Aquaculture Cooperative:

<<<<”The positive feasibility study provided the impetus for 31 producers to form the Texas Aquaculture Cooperative in the fall of 2002. Shimek is the co-op president and Hanson is vice president. They began processing their local catfish harvests in a building donated by Harold Bowers of Bowers Shrimp Company in Palacios.

Peter Woods became the Extension fisheries program specialist in the summer of 2002 and began working with co-op members to improve and expand their production ponds. He has helped growers produce 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of fish per acre. Most co-op members have several 8- to 10-acre ponds.

A few months later, with a business and marketing plan in hand, co-op members pooled $415,000 of their own start-up capital and built a 5,250-square-foot processing facility near Markham. The plant can process 150,000 pounds of fresh catfish per week.

The plant churned out more than 867,000 pounds of catfish in the last year, employed 24 full-time workers, and has pumped more than $17 million into the regional economy.”>>>>

Does anyone know of any WA or Australian Co-ops who are following a similar business growth strategy?

Sean

There’s plenty of discussion and research about this issue right now;

http://www.international.inra.fr/press/use_plant_raw_materials_fish_feed

Given the need for top quality aquaculture producers to differentiate lesser quality operations and from “every man and his dog” who are entering the industry with small scale operations, wouldn’t this be an ideal way for producers to differenciate their product in mainstream media/ on supermarket shelves?

Mainstream media has not yet begun to make an issue of these facts. Would it not be an opportunity for the industry leaders to go to market and begin to leverage customer preference and loyalty through highlighting this issue?

Sean

New evidence has been coming to light though about ratios of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080226164105.htm

Some farmed fish have been found to have higher levels of harmful fatty acids. This is be a concern that must be dealt with by the aquaculture industry as it won’t be long before this issue becomes more mainstream news/ health advice.

Fishfeed that promotes a better Fatty Acid ratio can help to solve this problem. WA is in a particularly good position to help as it is regionally the world’s largest producer of Lupins and Lupin used in fishfeed has this positive effect.

Much effort and initiative should be invested in ways to practically quantify true appetite and to detect feed wastage in order to promote effective feed management. Feed wastage detector systems such as the hydro-acoustic feed detectors have successfully been implemented in aquaculture systems abroad to monitor food sinking through aquaculture cage-systems. Although effective in minimising feed wastage, these systems do not detect fish feeding behaviour or appetite and are therefore limited in its pro-active ability to predict the appetite of the fish as indicated by the start of the next feeding rhythm.

Does anyone have any suggestions to what is a whole of industry problem, so that we can have a sustainable industry for many years to come.

Taurine is found throughout key areas of the human body. It is mainly found in the muscles and the brain, in the heart and in the blood. White blood cells, too, have high concentrations of taurine. It is also known to be exteremely important for the development of the brain, the retina of the eye, and the liver of the newly born. 

Taurine is also important in other functions of the body. For example, taurine facilitates the passage of numerous substances into the bloodstream and enhances fat metabolism. Taurine also plays an important role during liver metabolism. Additionally,  taurine has a positive effect on the re-absorption of fat soluble vitamins and influences the serum cholesterol level. 

Taurine-enriched fish would be able to offer consumers significant additional health benefits. In much the same way as consumers are conscious of the benefits of seafood high in Omega-3 fatty acids, seafood producers would market the additional health value of taurine-enriched fish to differentiate their product and create a competitive advantage.

The complete article can be found here.

As per this project, it is mandatory for a fish farm to keep records of supplier and identity of raw materials, assigning a unique ID, and making records of which product go to which customer. Only identifiers of raw materials and finished product are sent to next level in the supply chain.

According to latest reports, ISO committee is commencing project to develop standards for “Traceability of captured Fish and Farmed Fish”, final version of which will be delivered by 2011.

1.Overseas representation up to $200k

2.Market consultation up to $50k

3.Traevl

4.Communications

5.Samples

6.Promotional Literature

8Assistance with bringing overseas buyer to Australia up to $45k 

The website is  www.austrade.gov.au  – Assistance

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Oceans/Aquaculture/Salmon/Net_Loss.asp

In the meantime, there are other species of fish like carp and tilapia which are , ‘easy maintenance’ fish like carp or tilapia that are both more disease resistant, monivorous, efficient to feed and don’t cause net loss in fish. Why fight an uphill battle trying to raise fish that aren’t suited to the conditions, and are costly to produce? Why not farm Tilapia instead?

One of the problems is that they are not considered ‘high value’ fish – in fact, in the wild, they’re considered pests.

Instead of innovating with feed, why don’t we innovate with markets?

Tilapia are considered good eating fish elsewhere, and the market in the US is both sizeable and growing, as are markets in our region:

http://www.infofish.org/marketreports/tilapia0607.html

http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/388/tilapia-market-report-january-2008

http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/5014/muhyiddin-wants-greater-participation-in-tilapia-farming

A little market experimentation and investment in the fish in the US has helped it gain popularity here – perhaps retailers could trial something similar here.