Warm Water Fish Production as a Niche Market and Diversification Strategy

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Warm Water Fish Production as a Niche Market and
Diversification Strategy
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Why aquaculture?

• Aquaculture in the UK remains a mainly coastal,
  specialised enterprise
• Not integrated with agriculture
• Specialised knowledge, sites (water sources),
  markets
• Off-farm feeds-linked with marine ecosystems

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Why warm-water fish? Why tilapia?

• Lack of suitable local species with the right
  qualities
• Tastes good
• Feeds low in the food chain
• Tolerant of culture
• In many contexts tilapia are raised integrated
  within a broader, terrestrial farming system

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Warmwater..

• Maintaining culture systems at the right
  temperature (28oC)
• Insulated, underutilised farm buildings
• Low value thermal heat-potential for use locally

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a rationale diversification approach?

• Diversification a common aim
• Many constraints
• No familiarity with technical and market issues
• Level of capital required
• Potential benefits
• Can be based on locally available feedstock
• Marketed as local and possibly organic

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History..and the future

• Tilapia start-ups in the UK over last two decades
  have been capital intensive
• Commodity orientation, specialised
• Now, massive production in the Tropics will make
  commodity market very competitive

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Scale and function

• Can tilapia production be simplified to produce
  relatively small amounts of high value fish to
  local and specialised markets?
• And if so what technical and markets research is
  required?
• What holistic benefits might result?

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Technical challenges

• Naturally tilapias graze on aquatic
  pastures-plankton, bacterial floc
• Commercial systems tend to feed complete
  feeds-like broiler chickens
• but they require feed supplementary to natural
  feed to grow well
• Ok in ponds but..tanks?

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Trials
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Clean water or food-rich water?

• Conventionally waste feed removed by a filter and
  fish raised in clean water
• Can waste be retained in the system and used as a
  further source of feed?
• Feeding the fish? Feeding the bacterial floc?
• Results so far..fish are growing (slower than
  conventional recirculation (filtered) systems.

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Waste or food???
Natural food rich
Natural food poor
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But.

• Water quality remains high without expensive
  filter (25kg/m3 )
• Lower densities-appropriate,
• lower risk approach
• simple design and management of the system
• Overall yield on 20 crude protein
• Field beans and barley??

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Other benefits

• Without fishmeal/oils and associated problems
• Only useful effluents-local nutrient reuse
• Traceability, low fish miles
• Potentially organic

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Who will eat the fish?

• We have identified two major groups
• Ethnic markets
• The foodies
• Small quantities
• Specialist retailers
• Farmers markets
• Internet sales
• Direct restuarant

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Ongoing research

• Trying to understand how to best manage the
  floc system and produce fish profitably
• Would this meet the needs of rural entrepreneurs?
  What types of farmers might be interested?
• How could this system contribute to sustainable
  rural livelihoods?

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The team

• University of Stirling
• Institute of Aquaculture
• Department of Marketing
• Public Health Group
• Prof. Jimmy Young
• Prof Andrew Watterson
• Dr David Little
• Dr Francis Murray
• Kathleen Grady
• Dr. Jimmy Turnbull Institute of Aquaculture
• Dr. Kim Jauncey Institute of Aquaculture
• Dr Ekram Azim Researcher, Marie Curie Grant
• Dr. Sarath Kodithuwakku Entrepreneurship
• Anton Immink Communications officer
• Marcus Thomson Rural diversification
• Dr. Sunil Kadri Industry Liaison, Fish Welfare
• Commercial Partners
• Pisces Aquaculture Ltd
• Freshwater Fish Farms Ltd

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Questions?