Entrepreneurship Zone: 26 April 2023 :: Nigeria: How this entrepreneur set up a dried catfish business
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Entrepreneurship Zone: 26 April 2023 :: Nigeria: How this entrepreneur set
up a dried catfish business
*
<mailto:zitfmktg at zitf.co.zw>
Femi Eniola returned to Nigeria from abroad and in 2018 set up Osky Catfish
Hatchery Grow-out & Processing Facility, a business that grows and dries
catfish for domestic consumption and international export. Eniola explained
to James Torvaney why he chose to pursue catfish processing and what it
takes to succeed in the industry.
What made you go into fish farming in the first place?
I had lived around the world, including in Australia – where I trained as a
railway conductor – and both the United Kingdom and the United States. But I
always found it difficult to find Nigerian catfish. Any catfish I could find
seemed to come from East Asian countries like Thailand or the Philippines,
even those in the African stores.
I wanted to know what the secret was that allowed East Asian countries to
export so much catfish, whereas African countries, despite having such
fertile growing conditions, exported so little. So I travelled to the
Philippines, where I enrolled in a catfish production training programme.
During the programme, they were actually using catfish bred in Nigeria.
This is an insult and a big shame to Nigeria. How could I come all the way
to the Philippines to learn how to cultivate catfish that comes from
Nigeria? Why can’t this be done in Nigeria?’
So that was what made me come back to Nigeria. I wanted to do catfish
farming the right way, in a way that was suitable for international export.
So when you came back to Nigeria, how did you get Osky started?
When I came to Nigeria, I met with the relevant people in the government,
told them what I wanted to do, and researched the relevant guidelines and
requirements.
I leased 5,000 square metres of water from the Benin Owena River Basin
Development Authority near Akure, in my home state of Ondo, in southern
Nigeria. It’s the ideal location as there is a constant supply of fresh,
flowing water, which allows the catfish to grow organically and speed up
their growth.
>From the beginning, I wanted to process to international standards, so I
had to ensure our facilities would meet all the required standards for
exportation, including having standards inspectors from the United States
visit the facilities before we started production.
Dried catfish produced by Osky.
How have you expanded the business since starting?
I quickly realised that in order to make the business work, we had to
control the whole value chain, from the hatching, through the growth stage,
to the processing (drying) of the catfish.
I later added a feed mill so that we wouldn’t need to buy feed. I use a
formula based on what I learnt in the Philippines, which consists solely of
ingredients I can source locally, such as corn, soya cake, fishmeal and
rice.
Can you explain a bit more about the international market for catfish?
Catfish has a huge market in Asia, and also in Western countries like the
United States and Canada where lot of consumers are moving away from red
meat and beginning to look to alternative protein sources. It’s also popular
in many African countries – it is a very popular and commonly used
ingredient in Nigerian cuisine, for example.
Unfortunately, the Nigerian market prefers catfish that is smoked the
traditional way: over a direct flame. There are health issues with this – it
can be carcinogenic. It is also one of the issues preventing Nigerian
catfish producers from accessing the international export market, because
very few countries will allow catfish on the market that has been dried
directly over fire.
The alternative way of drying the catfish, which is the internationally
accepted method, is to use an oven. I was very clear, right from the
beginning, that we would use this method of processing our catfish.
What makes the catfish business such a good industry to be in?
If you do the business right, catfish farming can be a very lucrative
business. A lot of what you need can be found naturally in Nigeria, which
means it has lower capital requirements compared to most other agriculture
and manufacturing businesses. And because catfish can be ready to harvest in
just a few weeks, it has a much quicker turnover. If you don’t cut corners,
you can get your initial investment back in a matter of months.
Catfish can be edible as soon as they 60 days old, although we allow our
fish to grow for around 90 days, by which time they are 600-700 grams.
Osky’s processing facility.
Every week we process around four tonnes of fresh catfish, which gives us
around one tonne of dried product. One advantage of catfish farming in
Nigeria is that there is relatively little seasonality and, unlike the East
Asian markets, you can farm catfish 365 days of the year.
Highlight some of the trends you have noticed in the industry.
One trend is that there are a lot of young people coming into the industry
and starting up businesses. Another is that technology is allowing producers
to reach buyers they wouldn’t otherwise have found – using platforms such as
Instagram, Alibaba, etc. I make the majority of my sales online.
What are the most difficult aspects of running a successful catfish
processing business in Nigeria?
Three things come to mind:
Firstly, financing. It is extremely difficult to get bank financing for
projects. There is a lot of corruption at the bank officer level.
Secondly, research and sector-specific knowledge. Climate change is killing
fish and means they cannot reproduce like they did before. Most farmers do
not have up-to-date skills, and those that don’t know new technologies, and
new ways of doing things, are going to struggle.
Finally, human capital. A lot of people want to be the boss and
millionaires overnight. But they don’t take time to learn the right skills.
In Nigeria especially, you need to know your business really well, even as
the CEO. You can’t just leave things to other people, you need to know
everything about how your fish grow, what they eat, et cetera.
-Howwemadeitinafrica
Femi Eniola, founder of Osky.
Invest Wisely!
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