CATFISH FARMING, THE RISK AND THE GIANT PROFITS

CATFISH FARMING, THE RISK AND THE GIANT PROFITS

 CATFISH, popularly called Mudfish and or Adwene in Akan is the most popular fish in places like Nigeria, Benin and Togo and commands much more respect than Tilapia does in Ghana. It is traditionally served in beer bars in plates of hot spicy pepper soup (what I got to taste had more aromatic spices than pepper, but maybe that was just the Ibadan recipe, or better still I may have chanced a bad cook at the hotel).

In Ghana, CATFISH is most popular amongst the Akans and a selection of ethnicities in the Volta Region. In fact many, other ethnic groups taboo it as there are many superstitions making the rounds. There are varieties of the species though that are popular amongst all Ghanaians, these include the smoked fish common in most markets called the 'gearbox'or Chrysichthys and nigrodigitatus. The 'gearbox' variety is strangely though not well researched for farming. This may be because the Original African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) has been adopted worldwide for fish farming. Presently, China farms more African Catfish than all of Africa can produce, funny uh?

VIDEO OF CATFISH BEEN FED AT AKUSE, GHANA

My purpose is to show the commercial viability of catfish culture, the risks and reasons why tilapia seems to have more preference amongst fish farmers.

Catfish unlike tilapia are cannibalistic. That is to say they eat other fishes or anything small enough to enter their mouths. Now this happens mostly when the fish are not well fed. If you stocked 1000 tilapia fingerlings and did not feed them properly you may lose up to hundred fingerlings due to natural factors. On the other hand if you did same with catfish fingerlings the more aggressive ones would have some of their siblings for lunch and as they get bigger they have a bigger appetite to eat even more smaller ones. The result is that out of 1000 catfish fingerlings stocked you may be lucky to count up to 200 if you neglected them for even three weeks. If well fed though from the beginning they tend not to eat each other after they gain a certain weight.

Now it must be obvious to you why so many people prefer the more predictable tilapia to farm in Ghana. Our brothers in Nigeria and my former employer (CGL) in Ghana however prefer the catfish because it grows evidently faster and has a great market even when smoked. What’s more the price stays stable all year round and at best goes up once in a while when demand is too high. They are successful in this venture because they know what profits lie ahead and thus invest heavily in startup feed for the young fish up to a stage where they won't cannibalize each other and then they resort to cheaper local homemade feed or agricultural wastes.

Now to the figures, Catfish sells at ₦450 (GHC6.34) per kilogram in Nigeria; a typical fish fed for five to six months may weigh between 1 to 3 kilograms or an average of 2 kilograms. In Ghana, the price is GHC 5 per kilogram in the Ashanti region, GHC 7 - 10 in Accra, and GHC 5 - 10 in the Eastern region. The Central and Western regions sometimes record prices as high as GHC 15 per kilogram, although in most cases they have similar prices as in Accra. The price is highly unstable and inclined to rise because the number of catfish farmers and their production is very small.

So imagine you took the risk and successfully produced 10,000 catfish each weighing 1 kilogram culminating in 10 tons. How and where would you sell them? Because the market isn't as well developed as tilapia, market women may try to cheap the farmer who wants to quickly sell off his or her fish and make back some profit. It won't also be practical to decide to sell off your fish in bits at a time because each day of delay increases the risk of losses to poachers and natural causes. This is where the exporter comes in! Currently the few exporters on my directory buy a kilogram of live catfish for GHC 5.5. This may be too low compared to the market value of a kilogram, but the exporter offers the opportunity to sell your fish stock at one go and receive payment instantly irrespective of how many thousands of tons you may have produced.

BUDGET
10,000 catfish fingerlings @30Ghp each              GHC 3000
Feed 350 bags @GHC 49 each                          GHC 17,150
Labour @ GHC200 month/6months                   GHC 1200
TOTAL                                                           GHC 18,650
SALES = 10,000 kilograms X GHC 5.5 =           GHC 55,000
PROFITS = SALES - INVESTMENT =           GHC 36,350

I USED AN AVERAGE OF 1 KILOGRAM PER FISH FOR WORST CASE SCENARIOS, IT IS MORE REGULAR THOUGH TO GET A WEIGHT OF 1.5KG - 2 KG WITH A BUDGET SUCH AS THE ONE ABOVE. THIS WOULD MEAN THAT THE SALES OF GHC 55,000 COULD BE EITHER GHC 82,500 OR GHC 110,000 ACCORDINGLY. FROM THESE YOU COULD SUBTRACT YOUR INVESTMENT TO GET YOUR NEW PROFIT. SHOCKED HUH? PRECISELY WHY THE MONEY LOVING NIGERIANS PREFER CATFISH!

Note that, you could cut down on the budget by investing in for instance 200 bags of feed till the fish attain a size which makes it unlikely for them to eat each other and then you feed them with leftover agricultural waste or the cassava dough formulations some farmers use. I have quoted 400 bags though for those who are well capitalized. In any case you won't be spending the whole amount at a go on feed as it would be accumulated over the six month period.  

NOTE HOWEVER THAT FROM MY OWN EXPERIMENT IT WOULD COST YOU USD 1.7 OR GHS 2.6 PRESENTLY (DECEMBER 2013)TO GROW ONE CATFISH ON ONLY EXTRUDED FEED TO A KILOGRAM IF IT'S A GOOD BREED.

I have left out the cost of constructing the ponds or buying canvas tanks because I realize the charges vary by location and nature of soil. An excavator though would do a better and faster job. Or equally one could invest in a lot of cages (an expensive option: cage farming is cheaper for tilapia as they can be crowded, but same won't work with catfish thus necessitating more cages and more expenditure).

Like I always say, fish farming is second only to narcotic drugs in terms of profits because very little effort is needed but great risk is undertaken in both. Getting a consultant to walk you through the steps eliminates much of the risk. After learning from the consultant in your first trail you are pretty much well positioned to go independent because trust me there is nothing complex to it!