Bioeconomic evaluation of different fry production systems for milkfish (Chanos chanos)

Milkfish (Chanos chanos) is one of the most important brackish water finfish species being cultured in Southeast Asia. Annual total production from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Taiwan has been exceeding 300,000 metric tons since 1980. The industry has relied on wild-caught milkfish fry, which is unpredictable, until hatchery fry became available in 1987. Two milkfish fry production systems, intensive and semi-intensive system, are available. This paper compares the operational procedures as well as production costs in both systems in Taiwan. Without considering the fertilized eggs cost, the production cost for 1000 fry is US27.40 for the intensive and US6.67 for a semi-intensive system. Under the intensive system, the production has to exceed 1 million fry/cycle to earn a profit, considering no cost for fertilized eggs. To pay for fertilized eggs and achieve a profit, the production has to be more than 1.4 million fry and the cost of fertilized eggs must be less than 10% of total production. The semi-intensive system has a higher profit margin. A profitable operation can still be achieved at gross harvest sharing of 60% or more, even if the fry production level reaches 50% of the targeted number of 2 million. At the target number of fry production and 60% gross harvest sharing, the hatchery operator has a profit income no matter if self-supplying rotifers or not. It is concluded that semi-intensive or outdoor system is a profitable operation for milkfish fry production in Taiwan.