These are 8 weeks old juvenile catfish enjoying fresh water at Divine Fish Farm and Gardens. We intend to grow these fish for another 12 weeks (3 months) by which time they should average 500 grammes (g) per fish. At that size they will be ready for processing, i.e. smoking and drying.
Here is a budget estimate for growing these fish.
The catfish in this pond number 1000 pieces. They will have an estimate total mass of 500 kilogrammes (kg) after 3 months. They will consume about 35 bags (15kg per bag) of extruded catfish feed at an estimate total cost of two hundred and forty-five thousand naira (N245,000).
The cost of hatching catfish fries and growing them through fingerlings to 1000 juveniles after 8 weeks is N35,000.
The operational costs of growing the fish is N55,000. The total estimate cost of growing the 1000 fish in this pond to 500 kg is N335,000.
Given this outlay at what price should the catfish be sold to recoup the investment? Remember that the farmer cannot ignore the market price of fish in deciding the price at which he or she will sell his or her fish. How much control does the farmer have over the price at which he/she sells his/her product? To which market should the farmer sell his/her product? Can the farmer take advantage of producing at scale to reduce unit cost of growing fish? How close is the farmer to his market?
The questions above are what every fish farmer should ask at the beginning of every fish farming cycle. A fish farmer should do his budget estimate at the beginning of every fish farming cycle. Intending fish farmers should also do this exercise so as to determine if the venture would be worthwhile.
Sadly, many catfish farmers in Nigeria do not do a budget analysis before engaging in the business of catfish farming and it often leads to unintended consequences. I will end with a tabulated estimate of growing 1000 catfish to an average mass of 500 grammes per fish.
Estimate cost of growing 500 kilogrammes of catfish in Lagos, Nigeria for August – December, 2019 |
||
SN |
Item |
Cost (N) |
1 |
1000 pieces of juveniles |
35,000 |
2 |
500 kg of extruded catfish feed |
245,000 |
3 |
Operational costs |
55,000 |
|
Total Cost |
335,000 |
Sincerely,
Ugochukwu Ukwuegbu
Divine Fish Farms and Gardens
info@divinefish.com.ng, +2348077776861