Industry Review
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Milkfish harvested from ponds range from 500-800g. The daily harvest is sold to local markets in Kedah, Penang and Selangor. Deboned ikan susu, as the milkfish is called in Malaysia has a 20% price premium.
who began by farming the monodon shrimp and subsequently moved to farm the vannamei shrimp. The elder Lim, now the chairman, has passed the running of the farm to his two sons, Yong Keng and Shen Yong, some 1.5 years ago. Today, this younger generation plays a larger role in managing the farm. The farm has 50 workers for the farming segment. “We decided to switch to the milkfish in 2014 and each crop cycle is 6 months. We did not need to renovate the shrimp ponds extensively. In this farm, our 4 acre-ponds (1.6 ha) are enclosed by two long reservoir ponds of 3m deep which follow the loop of the river. We draw the water upstream from the river at one end and release water downstream into the same river at another end. Water is filtered with an 80-mesh net and we exchange almost all of the water daily. Water salinity is around 25-28ppt, ideal for the milkfish,” said Yong Keng.
explained, “Our competitors are the farmed seabass and snappers, which local consumers are familiar with. Now we harvest daily and sell the fish as chilled or fresh fish in markets in Selangor, Penang and Kedah. We named the fish as ‘ikan susu’ in Bahasa Malaysia or 奶宝鱼 in Mandarin. Acceptance of live fish is still challenging as restaurants prefer seabass etc. for steamed fish dishes. The exfarm price is MYR10/kg (USD2.4/kg) whereas at the retail level, the fish is sold at MYR18-19/kg (USD4.25-4.5/kg). We also export the fish through a broker, currently to China and Australia.” He added, “We want Malaysians to appreciate the benefits of this ‘vegetarian’ fish. We have been attending exhibitions to promote the fish. At this launch, we have prepared several dishes to introduce western, oriental, fried and steamed milkfish recipes. We have recently started an e-commerce business (fishco.com.my) as another channel to market the milkfish."
“One of our early challenges was to formulate a specific feed for the milkfish. We worked with Cargill Malaysia to develop a 2628% crude protein (CP) feed. Next is to have a lower protein feed of 24% CP. Our feed demand is 300 tonnes/month. Currently the cost of production is MYR6/kg (USD1.4/kg) at a feed conversion ratio of 1.6. The average survival rate is 60%, which is acceptable. Margins are good today as we are the only producer.” The good news is that Yong Keng has estimated a survival rate of 80% for this year’s first crop.
The milkfish is well known as an extremely bony fish. The team then sourced experts from Taiwan and the Philippines on techniques to remove all 222 bones from the fish. The company’s processing plant was started in September 2019 and daily 40 workers manually remove the fish bones. “We strongly believe that our success in deboning milkfish has increased its acceptability and popularity in the Malaysian market. Deboned milkfish, vacuum packed and frozen, has a 20% price premium. Next we can look further to value added products such as smoked milkfish and fish ball.”
Marketing milkfish in Malaysia
Similar to the tilapia, Yong Keng is looking at the farm fish complex, apart from the fillet for food, the rest of the fish for various coproducts. “We know that we can use the bones as fertiliser, scales for face masks and now we are working with chefs to develop the skin into snacks.”
As the milkfish is a new product in Malaysia’s seafood scene, marketing the fish is a major challenge for the brothers. Yong Keng
Expansion: hatchery and contract farming Currently, the farm buys 1-inch (2.54 cm) fry for stocking from Taiwan and the Philippines. However, there are plans to have its own hatchery. It already has around 700 broodstock of 3-10kg awaiting the set-up of a hatchery. “We are hoping to share our farming knowledge with farmers who are interested in starting a milkfish farming business under our guidance and using our farming technology and management practices,” added Yong Keng.
Lim Tio Huat (centre) and Lim Yong Keng (third right) with the Cargill Asean team.
March/April 2020 AQUA Culture Asia Pacific