Heavy new investments in tilapia

The main aquaculture players worldwide are turning to tilapia as a new species to invest in. This development is linked to interesting prices for tilapia, good demand and plenty of suitable areas for aquaculture worldwide.

Marine Harvest, the world's largest farmed salmon producer, is thus looking to buy a tilapia producer. Tilapia is seen as the company's best opportunity to expand its product offerings. Based in the Netherlands, Marine Harvest has been at the centre of a series of acquisitions and mergers in the farmed salmon industry in recent years, and this new acquisition will strengthen the position of the company in the cultured fish world.

AquaChile is growing tilapia in Panama through its affiliate in Costa Rica, Aquacorporacion Internacional, which it owns 60% of and which operates under the Rain Forest brand. AquaChile aims to increase its share of the tilapia business. AquaChile aims to set up tilapia farming cages on Lake Bayano. The farms would boost Panama’s fresh tilapia fillet exports to about 20 000 tonnes a year, valued at US$ 50 million and more than triple Panama’s current exports of around 5 500 tonnes. Company sources estimate production will be 10 000 tonnes a year in the first phase of the project.

New production areas started up in Ecuador during the second half of 2006, which will enable Ecuador to bolster its leadership of the fresh tilapia fillet export segment in 2007. In January 2007, Ecuador became the first Latin American country to export over 1 000 tonnes of fresh tilapia fillets to the EU.

Tilapia farming is said to have great potential for aquaculture in India. The government’s recent decision to permit imports of some of the fast-growing tilapia species was well received by the aquaculture industry. Tilapia culture will also provide some relief to shrimp farmers who are facing problems with white spot disease. It added that tilapia culture is environment friendly and its high yield would help meet the country’s food security needs


Excellent demand for tilapia in the USA

Demand for tilapia and other seafood products was high during the Lent period in the USA. American consumers particularly Catholics and some Christian denominations traditionally avoid meat dishes during this religious period, but consume more seafood instead. A large seafood restaurant chain, Red Lobster also introduced a new stuffed tilapia dish in its casual dining menu during this Lent.

As a result of the strong demand, imports of tilapia into the USA again hit a new record in the first three months of the year. Some 47 300 tonnes of tilapia were imported, 35% more than during the corresponding 2006 period. The trend already observed during the past two years continued, with frozen fillet imports growing strongly, while whole frozen is stable. On the positive side for Latin American producers was the 20% increase in fresh fillet exports during the January-March 2007 period.

Ecuador continues to be the main exporter of fresh tilapia fillets to the US market, accounting for 48% of total supply. The country is expanding its position due to the above mentioned new tilapia farms that started production in late 2006. Honduras, which announced that it would soon overtake Ecuador, is limping behind. Costa Rica seems to have recovered from the survival of fingerlings problems, experienced in late 2005. The country shipped 1 000 tonnes in the first three months of 2007, 40% more than in the same period of 2006. Brazilian exports of fresh tilapia fillets declined sharply, as all tilapia companies in the country prefer the domestic market, due to the strong Brazilian currency, which makes exports less attractive.

However, fresh tilapia fillets is rather a niche market now, with very high prices. The real market setter is frozen tilapia fillets, mainly from China. The growth of Chinese products on the US market is incredible. In the first three months of 2007, exports of frozen tilapia fillets from China to the US market almost doubled to 22 000 tonnes. The country is thus dominating this market with a 92% share. All other players are marginal.

Whole frozen tilapia is rather stagnant with imports of 15 400 tonnes in the first three months of the year. Again China Mainland is the main supplier, with about 80% of the market. Taiwan’s (Province of China) importance in this category is further declining.

Declining supplies of fresh red snapper from the Gulf of Mexico and Western Atlantic Ocean has prompted some restaurants to use tilapia fillets as a substitute. Tilapia is cheaper and abundant in supply. The problem is that some restaurant operators mislabel tilapia and sell it as red snapper. A DNA test was recently conducted by a newspaper in Chicago on 14 samples of sushi labelled as red snapper, collected from 14 restaurants in the city. It was found that none was real red snapper, but 9 samples were tilapia and the rest sea bream.

Overall, despite the overall good demand, the massive imports were accompanied by sharply declining prices of both fresh and frozen tilapia fillets. The overall trend is for a further decline of prices. How much more frozen tilapia fillets will enter the USA in the coming months? It has to be seen whether the antibiotics discussion of catfish from China will have an impact on the demand for Chinese tilapia as well. If the market continues to grow as at present, total tilapia imports into the USA can easily reach 180 000 tonnes in the course of 2007. This compares to 160 000 tonnes of total groundfish imports into the US market. This figure shows the outstanding importance of tilapia in the US seafood industry.

Fair trade certification for African tilapia?

Facing increasing competition from low-cost re-freshed product, African farmed tilapia producers have banded together to explore eco-credentials. Frozen tilapia and pangasius imports into Europe have skyrocketed in the past few years, and hit fresh tilapia’s market share hard. Though the Chinese product is of inferior quality - it is often thawed and sold as fresh and, in violation of EU rules, treated with carbon monoxide -- the fish is sold at upwards of € 2.00/kg cheaper than real fresh tilapia.

One African company, Lake Harvest, secured EU funding to explore the market for “fair trade” farmed fish - a concept that has so far not been applied to aquaculture. While free trade certifiers like the Fairtrade Labelling Organization and Max Havelar are interested, they are not clear on how to develop the concept. Other African companies agreed to form an association, which will be developing a formal entity, a code of practice, and possibly, a unified sales and marketing channel for the EU export market.


INFOFISH is organizing a trade conference on tilapia: TILAPIA 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 23-25 August 2007. More information is available at http://www.infofish.org/.

By Helga Josupeit (GLOBEFISH)
© FAO GLOBEFISH 2007