We continue to acquaint the readers of our site with the opportunities that aquaculture opens up for us.
This time we decided to talk about a fairly promising type of fish – whitefish. We received a very interesting brochure (Brochure about whitefish) from the salmon farming laboratory of the Institute of Fisheries of the National Academy of Sciences. You may ask “Why salmon farming?”. The whitefish family Coregonidae belongs to the suborder Salmonoidei. That is why the laboratory of salmon breeding deals with the topic of whitefish.
In the brochure you will find enough useful information for the initial acquaintance with whitefish. Despite the fact that in the reservoirs of Ukraine it is possible to grow whitefish in open water bodies, we would like to consider in more detail the cultivation of whitefish in the conditions of RAS (recirculating aquaculture systems).
RAS for whitefish
So, in terms of physiology and needs, whitefish differ little from other salmonids. Therefore, it is possible to grow whitefish in trout RAS.
Whitefish and muksun are the most promising species for cultivation. Muksun is a high-value fish, the meat of which is consumed both raw (stroganina) and smoked, dried and other forms. These species differ from other whitefish in growth rates, are very easily adapted to the consumption of artificial feeds, have a high retail price (12-17 Euros per kg), so their cultivation in ASD conditions can be extremely profitable.
The growth rate of whitefish is slightly behind the growth rate of trout. This is due to the fact that work on the breeding of fast-growing trout hybrids has been carried out for more than 100 years. Breeding work with whitefish has practically not been carried out by anyone, so mainly natural forms of whitefish are grown, which, when properly grown, show good results, but lag behind trout.
We got into our hands a table of the results of research on feeding and growing whitefish on artificial feeds by RasioAqua (Finland).
So, as a result of the experiment, it was possible to grow fish weighing 805 grams in 11 months Although already at the end of April (after 8 months), the fish reached a table weight of 350 grams and can already be sold through retail networks. But it is necessary to take into account the most optimal temperature for growing whitefish (16C) during the experiment. In the conditions of open RAS, the water temperature can drop to 6-8C.
Economics
If the cost of growing trout in an open RAS will be 2.5 Euros, the cost of whitefish and whitefish will be slightly higher due to lower growth rates and higher stocking costs (complicated caviar incubation technology). Approximately, you need to focus on the price in the region of 3.8-4 Euros per kilogram of grown products. At a retail price of 10-12 Euros per kg, the wholesale price can be 7-9 Euros, which gives a minimum profit of 3 Euros, which is almost twice the profit obtained from trout farming.
Whitefish are very well amenable to further processing (freezing, drying, smoking), and this gives the farmer the opportunity to make additional profit.
Conclusion
Whitefish are extremely a promising family of fish for cultivation in conditions of recirculating aquaculture. At the moment, all the ingredients are in place for farmers to be able to start supplying this extremely tasty fish to the Ukrainian market. Planting material is available, feed is also available, all that remains is to build high-tech farms that will allow the necessary amount of fish to be grown without hindrance.
For further information, contact phones:
+380 50 879 6803
+380 67 502 4730 (viber)
For review, the “Forel-30” project, which is suitable for whitefish breeding.
