ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY IN PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF BONELESS BIGHEAD AND SILVER CARP MEAT AT A SMALL SCALE

Bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) and silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) are large river planktivores native to China and eastern Siberia.  The carp were imported to the United States in the 1970s as a form of phytoplankton control; however, by the 1980s they had escaped to natural waters and began repopulating.  Currently, Asian carp inhabit most water bodies in the Mississippi River Basin and have been shown to have a negative impact on native planktivore condition factor.  Efforts to control their populations with intensive commercial harvest have been hindered by lack of interest in American markets.  The presence of intermuscular "Y" bones creates a serious obstacle for American consumers who prefer boneless fish products.  This study determines the cost of deboning Asian carp at small-scale and the professional perceptions of the products.  

Multiple bighead and silver carp were filleted and deboned by trained fish processors and data regarding including processing times, fish dress-out yield, etc., were recorded.  Dress-out percentages for bone-in bighead carp fillets were consistent with previous literature; however, silver carp dress-out was lower than in previous studies.  Silver carp dress-out rates (13.25%) were significantly (P=0.0215) higher than for bighead carp (11.19%).

Bighead carp took less time to process (11:48 ± 0:29 minutes for bighead, 13:18 ± 0:50 minutes for silver).  Optimal labor allocation was two employees deboning and one employee at each of the other stations; this was necessary due to a bottleneck occurring at the deboning station.  On average  179.27 ± 0.13 bighead carp were processed per day while only134.80 ± 0.26 silver carp we able to be processed per day for breakeven prices of $13.72 ± 0.004 / kg ($6.22/lb.) and $10.06 ± 0.01 /kg ($4.56/lb.), respectively.  

Chefs preferred the taste of bighead carp and significant differences were seen in taste scores (P = 0.0216).  It is unlikely that deboning bighead carp would be a profitable enterprise when selling at the average stated WTP and in no scenario tested did the breakeven price fall below the $11.00/kg mark common for tilapia and catfish; however, based on this study's results, deboning silver carp could be profitable.  Utilizing optimal labor, all silver carp breakeven prices generated were below the $11.00/kg mark.