Fish Farming in South Africa

Is fish farming in SA a goldfish or a red herring?
 
Trout were imported into South Africa in the late 1890’s to stock into rivers for angling purposes.  Shortly thereafter the State erected hatcheries at strategic locations in the then Cape Province, Natal and Transvaal to produce fingerlings locally for the further stocking of rivers.  This was the beginning of the aquaculture industry in SA which for many decades was State driven and focussed exclusively on the production of freshwater sport fish.  Since the 1980s, however, there has been increasing interest in the production of food fish, both for food security and as a commercial investment.  There are currently only a few commercial scale fish farms active in the country but there are an increasing number of semi-commercial installations being run by operators who are refining their grasp on the technology or developing markets with the view to expand in time.
 
Naturally this begs the question `why aren’t there more commercial scale fish farms in South Africa?’  I believe that there are several reasons for this, including the following:
 
·       South Africa had plentiful stocks of many different species of marine fish that were landed at prices well below the cost of farming them, stunting the development of the marine fish farming sector.  Poor management of these stocks caused many to collapse and the price has risen such that it is now economically interesting to rear marine fish in captivity.
·       Due to the abundance of delicious marine fish, consumers shied away from eating freshwater fish which were at times regarded as being of inferior quality.  This prevented the industry from growing, other than for the production of trout which is a high value species and able to compete with marine fish.  As the wild fish stocks shrank and freshwater fish such as tilapia and pangasius started being imported, we have seen the average consumer now accepting freshwater fish and these species can be purchased in local supermarkets.
·       Most of SA is cool temperate with cold winters and hot summers.  Fish grow and utilise their feed most efficiently within a narrow temperature range.  Thus, cold water species such as trout struggle in summer and warm water species including tilapia stop growing in winter.  Unless the farmer can find a micro-climate suited to farming the species of their choice, they are obliged to cultivate their crop in an intensive system with temperature control.  Such systems are both capital and skills intensive which significantly increases the upfront investment required to start a fish farm.
·       Intensive fish farms are reliant on a stable electrical supply!  Eskom!  Eish!  The need for a completely reliable backup power system along with the expense of running generators (or batteries) during load shedding again adds to the cost of doing business.
·       Historically the State refusal to allow nile tilapia to be imported and farmed in SA suffocated the tilapia sector, and the monopoly held by one or two feed producers were also hurdles, but both of these have largely been overcome.
·       Politics.  Businessmen often state that they will not invest further on their farms until EWC (expropriation without compensation) is taken off the parliamentary table; or they await some other change to the political landscape governing South Africa before installing additional income streams.
 
So where to from here, is fish farming a worthwhile investment in SA or not?  Whilst each situation needs to be considered carefully on its’ own merits, there are some general principles that apply when addressing this question, these being:
 
·       Trout is in high demand and enjoys an attractive market price
·       Tilapia is marginal due to low-priced imports
·       Catfish is difficult to market unless value addition is done
·       Ornamental fish are lucrative but the market size is limited
·       Adding aquaponics to any of the above options significantly improves the profitability of the business
·       Marine fish farming is technically challenging and can only be adopted at an industrial scale
 
If I was investing in a fish farm in SA it would be a trout aquaponics system.
 
Leslie Ter Morshuizen designs and builds fish farms across sub-Saharan Africa, trains farmers to manage them optimally and ran his own operations.  For further information and to see how Aquaculture Solutions can help you, book a Discovery Session call or schedule a Personalized Consultation: +27 83 4060 208 or leslie@aquaculturesolutions.org.