Pompano: A failed aquaculture dream?

 

By F.E. OLIMPO

 

 

 

The round-bodied silver-colored finfish can be caught in the wild in the Indo­Pacific Region--from the Red Sea and East Africa to the Marshall Islands and Samoa, to northern and southern Japan and south of Australia.

 

The white-fleshed fish is popular among Asian consumers, especially in China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia. There is great demand for it in Singapore, where it commands a very good price.

 

The Philippines was among a handful of countries that saw the potential of raising pompano for export. As early as 2008, the country's fisheries began studying the potential of growing pompano through mariculture or marine-based aquaculture farms in Padre Burgos, Quezon.

 

In no time, the fish was being raised in captivity in a number of provinces across the country. Filipino fish farmers found it a good alternative to milkfish (bangus), the Philippines' leading aquaculture species.

 

Although farmers found the initial inputs of raising pompano to be higher, they were drawn to it by its high farm-gate prices, which were almost double those of milkfish.  They also found pompano easy to culture as it adapts easily to a caged environment. The fish readily accept aqua feed and grow at the same time.

 

Market acceptance

 

The fisheries bureau also found out that pompano, like pangasius, fetched a high level of market acceptance in the US and Europe in acceptance trials it conducted there.

 

Like the Philippines, other countries in Asia--China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Vietnam--went ga-ga over the new aquaculture species.

 

As early as three years ago, Morpol, one the world's leading salmon processors, through a local subsidiary, has been growing pompano in floating cages in Van Phong Bay, a sparsely populated area 50 kilometre north of the coastal city of Nha Trang in Vietnam. 

 

The fish take four to five months to reach a harvestable weight of 400 grams.

 

"We have found it to be a very popular fish here in Asia, and when we tried it we thought it was a great fish. We did a small test and found it to be a good fish to culture. So we increased our production," an executive of a local aquaculture company said.

 

 

From the wild

 

The pompano that consumers see in local markets are not from aquaculture farms but still from the wild.

 

This could not be the fault of local farmers, though. The truth is, pompano has yet to gain acceptance in markets abroad.

 

Or has pompano taken the same failed path as that of cobia?

 

A beautiful fish with a firm, white flesh, the cobia was also expected to take European and US markets by storm some years back. It didn't.

 

Cobia was first grown in captivity in Taiwan in the early 1980s, but it was not until 1995 that commercial production materialised. In 2007, cobia production rose to 30,000 tonnes, mostly in mainland China--only to fall below 5,000 five years later with Asian farmers switching to other species for lack of demand.

 

The culprit: sales in Europe didn't fulfill expectations. Industry insiders believe the reason that cobia sales in Europe were poor is that it is an unknown species competing in a diverse market with plenty of cheaper fish available. "Cobia certainly is never going to compete on price with the likes of pangasius, tilapia, or Alaska Pollock," one analyst said.

 

Is pompano going to meet--or has met--the same fate?