Taino Aqua Ferme S.A. is a company founded in Haiti in 2015 that to date has harvested 1200 tons of tilapia grown in cages in Lake Azuei, a lake with 10 ppt salinity located on the border with the Dominican Republic. Since the assassination of President Jovnel Moise in July 2021, the country has entered a phase of violence and misrule that has made it extremely difficult to operate a company, especially an aquaculture company that depends on importing feed from abroad and sells its fresh whole fish in the domestic market where there is no road safety because gangs have taken over the main roads.
The emphasis of this talk is to demonstrate with results of harvested cages that tilapia has been an ideal species to cultivate in this difficult situation of no governance, where we have reached periods of up to 33 days without feeding the cages and when we have managed to import feed, rations have been below 40% satiation.
As expected, the grow out cycle has increased on average by about 62 days (increase of 29%) and the average weight at the harvest has decreased by 122 grams on average (decrease of 20%). The pleasantly surprising and outstanding characteristic about tilapia´s biology has been that, with such extended periods without feeding and underfeeding, production efficiency indices have not deteriorated. The feed conversion ratio improved from 1.79 to 1.69 and survival from vaccination and laser count improved from 83% to 86%.
It does not make sense to underfeed, or not feed, to obtain better efficiency rates in harvest results, since the productivity of the system decreases substantially. But in times of difficulty in the operation of a company in countries where security and governance problems are likely, logistical difficulties or natural disasters, the biology of tilapia and its ability to filter natural foods and take advantage of fouling on tank or net surfaces makes it an ideal species for producing in developing countries.