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Tilapia producer Victory Farms has constructed a vertically built-in enterprise which incorporates the whole lot from a fish-farming operation in Lake Victoria to its personal distribution community and retail branches. Tom Collins spoke to Joseph Rehmann, CEO and co-founder of Victory Farms
Unlike different commercially farmed fish, scientists and researchers have but to pay critical consideration to tilapia, a freshwater fish native to Africa. While tilapia is among the many most commercially farmed fish globally, it’s largely completed by smallholder farmers and sometimes in less-developed nations. It has subsequently been largely ignored by companies, universities and different establishments, which have targeted extra on species like salmon.
This is the view of Joseph Rehmann, CEO and co-founder of Victory Farms, a tilapia company on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. The species shouldn’t be broadly consumed in Western nations; subsequently, companies haven’t invested money and time to work out essentially the most environment friendly method to farm the fish.
Rehmann believes that regardless of the shortage of funding, the tilapia trade presents a multibillion-dollar opportunity. “The tilapia story in Africa is huge,” he says. “And there aren’t many companies looking at tilapia from a commercial standpoint.”
Creating new fish-farming methods
Victory Farms began operations in 2016 and it goals to change into one among Africa’s largest business tilapia farmers. The company needed to design its personal fish-rearing course of as one of many pioneers of tilapia-rearing on a business scale in Africa.
“There’s almost nobody manufacturing tilapia equipment currently in the world, which is an amazing statement because it’s one of the world’s top three farmed fish. It is farmed by millions of smallholders and feeds billions of people. Yet, because it’s a smallholder industry, there has never been serious investment into the fish.”
The CEO says it was essential to not merely duplicate methods from different commercially farmed fish however as an alternative create a technique acceptable for tilapia and Africa. “We couldn’t just copy and paste the recirculatory aquaculture system (RAS) fishing style in Holland; the pond system from Thailand or the cage system from Norway. It required a hybridised approach. We believe Africa requires its own solutions.”
At first, Rehmann and his co-founder Steve Moran have been informed Lake Victoria was not appropriate for aquaculture because it was too nutrient wealthy, shallow and chilly. However, after technical and business feasibility research, they determined Africa’s largest lake was very best for tilapia.
He explains Victory Farms has one of many largest fish farming cage programs put in in a lake in Africa.
The company additionally designed its personal RAS know-how, appropriate for an open atmosphere like Lake Victoria. RAS is normally utilized in indoor tanks; the water is filtered and recycled again to the fish. But Victory Farms has created a hybrid mannequin the place the fish are reared in a pure lake. They are fed protein and carbohydrate pellets with no antibiotics. This distinctive course of is extra environment friendly than different RAS methods, which places the company in a superb place to compete with giant international producers.
Victory Farms has round 30 million fish alive at anyone time, and sells about two million tilapia every month. “If you look at our growth trajectory in just a few years, it is the fastest on the continent. If you look at our capital efficiency, we are significantly more efficient than some of the world’s largest tilapia farmers.”
Vertically built-in mannequin
Victory Farms has constructed a reasonably revolutionary gross sales and distribution system, delivering fish to tons of of market sellers in 12 counties throughout Kenya every day. The vertically built-in mannequin allows the company to make sure the efficient supply and sale of the fish.
Previously, it had struggled with exterior logistics firms that will swap off fridges to avoid wasting gasoline prices, resulting in the deterioration of the fish.
“We supply our own 56 branches each day and aim for 65 by the end of the year. Our cold trucks travel across Kenya delivering fresh fish to the branches daily,” Rehmann reveals.
“These branches sell to market ladies through M-Pesa, so it’s all cashless. And the ladies typically cook them and sell them the same day.”
None of those 56 branches, that are branded stores belonging to Victory Farms, has ice or refrigeration gear; all of the fish is offered inside someday. To make this attainable and never lose any fish to decomposition, Victory Farms maintains an information set on each single market dealer to foretell how a lot fish they may promote. The market merchants enter orders and gross sales by way of an SMS platform.
“We can accurately forecast exactly how much fish to stock in the branch tomorrow, so we have no spoilage. Our wastage is below 1%.”
Around 90% of Victory Farms’ produce is offered to those market merchants and 10% go to lodges and eating places. Rehmann says the company will finally have a look at supplying Kenyan supermarkets however the focus to this point has been “on the mass market” which gives entry to 48 million customers in comparison with solely two million customers in higher-income areas.
Source : how we made it in Africa