Tilapia tales: Can the small fish make a big splash?

Long considered a poor cousin of its more illustrious rivals such as rohu, catla and mrigal, the humble ‘tilapia’ is gradually acquiring a prominent place in India’s aquaculture story because of its huge export potential and burgeoning domestic demand.

According to a recent report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Worldfish, titled ‘Business Case for Scaling the Production of Tilapia in India’, the country would need an investment of around ~5,023 crore over the next 10 years to reach its desired tilapia production level of 0.766 million tonnes by 2027 and 2.155 million tonnes by 2032.

Currently, India’s domestic production of tilapia is just around 60,000-80,000 tonnes per annum and its share in the country’s aquaculture exports is negligible.

The annual production of Indian Major Carps (Rohu, Catla and Mrigal) is estimated to be almost 6 million tonnes. And over 80 per cent of India’s $5-7 billion annual aquaculture export is dominated by vannamei shrimps.

There are multiple reasons for the focus on tilapia.

But first, a look at the fish’s potential and unique characteristics that make it a first choice for several cultivators.

Why tilapia?

According to Rajamanohar Somasundaram, founder and CEO of Aquaconnect, an end-toend solution provider to shrimp and fish farmers, tilapia farming is a low-cost but high-margin business, with an added advantage of higher output since the fish can be farmed twice in a year.

“Easy cultivation makes tilapia a good choice for farmers as compared to Indian Major Carps because it is a hardy, meaty and an all-weather fish,” Somasundaram told Business Standard. Its bone content is also much less, which makes it ideal for fillets and other delicacies.

The presence of hybrid and modified tilapia varieties like Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) has added another dimension to its potential.

According to Aquaconnect’s calculations, the cost of producing an average-sized tilapia varies between ~40 and ~65 per kilogram (depending on the type of farming systems adopted). While the average farm gate-price fetched by tilapias is somewhere around ~6090 per kg (depending on the size) and when it is sold in the market, the price can go up to ~80-150 per kg.

This means a neat profit of around 40-50 per cent just at the farm-gate level. Only 20 per cent of the total tilapias produced in the country weigh over 1 kilogram, which helps in getting more production in less space.

“The biggest advantage of tilapia for the grower is that the feed cost is very nominal since this is an herbivore fish and can survive on algae, so it does not need artificial fish food. Moreover, it seldom gets infected with any disease due to its hardy character,” Somasundaram said.

Another major advantage is that it gains weight faster than other comparable varieties. “While an average IMC takes around eight months to gain a weight of 300-500 gm, tilapia takes just half of that — 3-5 months,” he said.

This means that more fish can be produced in the same period of time.

That apart, tilapia has a huge export market in Africa and West Asia.

On the business front, the CII report projects a healthy return on investment of 24 per cent — 30 per cent for everyone investing in the tilapia value chain.

“It is anticipated that by 2023, the volume of farmed tilapia will attract more investment into processing and manufacturing of valueadded products for domestic and international customers,” the CII report said.

Meeting the target

According to the CII report, the projected revenue from tilapia exports by 2027 is estimated at $1.135 billion, which would be eight per cent of the total estimated seafood export revenue of $14 billion by 2025.

And, by the 2032 financial year, the government estimates that revenue from tilapia exports will grow to $3.92 billion, thereby contributing over 15 per cent of the Indian exports of freshwater and marine aquaculture, which is estimated to be around $24 billion.

Of the targeted annual production of 2.155 million tonnes of whole, round fresh tilapia, around 0.738 million tonnes would be exported by 2032 — 0.59 million tonnes in the form of fillets processed from 1.78 million tonnes of whole, round fish.

This would be mainly to premium markets in the US, Europe and Japan, and also in the form of whole, round frozen fish to African countries.

The remaining 0.23 million tonnes would be sold in the domestic markets, both as fresh, whole, round fish and as fillets.

To achieve this ambitious target, the CII report projects the need for setting up around 1,151 new hatcheries. These would include 977 small hatcheries (each 2 million fry per year), 145 medium hatcheries (each 10 million fry per year) and 29 large size hatcheries (each 50 million fry per year).

“An investment of ~236 crores between 2022 and 2032 is needed to develop this hatchery infrastructure,” the report said.

In addition to the required hatchery infrastructure, the tilapia value chain will also require assets such as semi-intensive ponds (13,200 hectares), intensive ponds (2,800 Ha), small rectangular cages of 100 cubic metres (89,000) and large circular cages of 1,000 cubic metres (21,000).

“All these will require a capital expenditure of around ~5,023 crore over a 10-year period,” the report said.