Tilapia;
The Search for a Sustainable Model to Balance the Needs of
Environment, People and Economy.
Yedod and Israel Snir – Neve Eitan Fish Farm, Israel 38885, Inversiones miel - Honduras
During the past decade, World Tilapia production has experienced impressive and continued growth mainly in Asia, particularly in China. At the same time, very meaningful production scenarios and projects developed closer to the main export market in the USA, with significant impacts on the industry - beyond the numbers and statistics.
The Seafood market as a whole is evolving and we are witnessing extreme changes in the basic characteristics of the demand side. Today’s end client is more educated, expects transparency with regard to production methods, and has more ways to channel his requirements upwards, through the retailer or wholesaler, to the grower. Today, the big Tilapia exporters must give equal emphasis to production volumes and the environmental, social, and economic impacts of their activity, to adopt a more holistic approach in an attempt to find the right balance.
Driven by the increased USA market, Tilapia consumption has made impressive per capita growth, with limited impact on the overall “USA seafood consumption” per capita – which implies that Tilapia is replacing other marine species. Based on this very rapid, unprecedented production and market increase worldwide, FAO, public and private research institutes, potential investors, are all trying to understand and predict the tendencies and the real overall potential for the continuing development of the Tilapia industry. What are the limiting factors? How sustainable is this growth? Many years have passed since Tilapia was first introduced to the Boston seafood show in 1979; today it covers half of the floor. Will the same trend continue? How much more Tilapia will be needed? Where and how will Tilapia be produced? Which products? At what cost?
During the intervening years since first appearing on the market, the focus of the industry was on fast production growth which has taken its toll. The apparent “victims” of this rapid production growth are the environment, product quality and industry wholesomeness, the lives of people involved in the industry and their communities, and unfortunately the economy. Many big projects ended in bankruptcy and many small farming operations have simply disappeared. On the market side Tilapia is still suffering from low image reflected in low prices and increased economic constraints. To increase production and develop stable demand requires a balanced approach. Simultaneous adherence to each of the following seven principal components, in the order they appear, will create this balance:
1. Water & environment
2. Financing
3. Animals & Husbandry
4. People & Management
5. Facilities & Technology
6. Feed & Raw materials ingredients
7. Marketing the story behind the product
The challenge and mission for today’s producer is to find the right balance between all of these factors, or in today’s parlance, how to make this industry more “sustainable”. Therefore, the question for growers today is, how much more sustainable is your competition?
Examples - Salmon is mainly being produced by two rich countries and is being consumed worldwide by wealthier upper-class markets. A few farmers in Southern USA are producing American Catfish and most of it is being consumed there. The emerging Vietnamese Catfish industry is producing most of the Pangasius sold worldwide, but little is eaten locally. Shrimp is produced mainly in poor countries by poor people to satisfy rich exclusive markets but they can not afford to consume this product themselves …
Tilapia is a very different story; Tilapia is being produced all over the globe, mainly by “low income - food deficit countries”
Tilapia is being consumed all over the globe in various socioeconomics groups, levels, with no distinction. Tilapia, on the one hand, has the potential to secure food availability for poor nations while on the other hand can improve commercial balance for better and more stable developing economies. When the entire world economy, nations, societies, are being warned of a frightening food scarcity, and is experiencing a historically unique combination of dangerous climatological change, world political unrest, social unrest and real shortage due to increase in demand, this is even more compelling reason to produce Tilapia.
Tilapia, like any other live protein domestic product, is competing with humans for the same plant source nutrition – maize, soya, wheat, etc. In order to fulfill its nutritional expectations and future role – Tilapia (and other animals) must be produced on byproducts converted to high quality animal proteins from raw materials not suited for human consumption. Only then will Tilapia become an indispensable food staple for low income societies to balance their nutrition and at the same time become available to “white tablecloth” markets as well. In my presentation I am discussing the potentials and the limits for the Tilapia industry continuous growth and market expansion. This is based on one little country’s experience that should serve as a model for the potential impact on many other communities and societies.