Catfish 102 — Smoking and Drying
In my first post, I discussed the basics of catfish farming and now I’ll discuss the processing, smoking/drying methods, the market and the marketing aspect of the business. While some catfish farmers will gladly sell their mature fish fresh, others may choose to go ahead and dry their fish. There are some advantages in drying your fish some of which include longer shelf life, ease of transportation and distribution and more earnings.
Purchase and Processing of Fish for Drying
For those who don’t have their own fish farms, fresh catfish are sold at fish markets nationwide and are generally sold by weight (in kilograms). However, if you can buy directly from a fish farmer who has just harvested, that would be better as the cost of purchase is lower and this means more profit for you. It also means that you are sure that the fish is fresh. Always ensure that you only buy and use fresh catfish. Fresh catfish must always look, smell and feel fresh. If it doesn’t tick any of the boxes, then do not bother buying. Some dubious sellers might try to sell you slightly rotten fish and tell you that smoking the fish will take care of the rottenness. Be wary of buying such fish because smoking them won’t conceal the rottenness and this will cost you money and time.
The size of the fish to be purchased will depend on your customers. Some people like large smoked fish (6 months and above)while others prefer the small ones. Do your research and find out what the needs of your customers are before going ahead to buy.
After you’ve purchased the fish from the farm, the next step is to ensure they are all dead in order to prepare them for smoking. Since catfish are freshwater fish, the easiest way to kill them is by using salt. Put all the catfish into a container that has a lid and then pour a reasonable amount of salt into the container. The moment the first grains of salt touch the fish, they would react and this reaction will make several of them to try to jump out of the container. To avoid this, pour all your salt and immediately cover the container with the lid. Placing a heavy object on the lid will also ensure that the fish do not jump out of the container. Leave the fish in the container with the salt for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, take the fish out and begin to clean them. The cleaning will involve the removal of the gills, intestines and the use of clean water to rinse thoroughly when done. Some people use ash to also kill and clean the fish. It is a cheaper option if you have that readily available. However, ensure that you rinse thoroughly after using ash. To give the fish a unique taste and color, you can slightly rub some salt or palm oil on the body of the fish before drying.
After cleaning the fish, you can curl the fish into the popular circular shape that most smoked catfish are sold as or you can leave them straight. This is really up to you.
Smoking and Drying
There are 2 major ways by which catfish can be dried. They are:
1. The traditional open fire with either firewood or charcoal as the fuel
2. Kiln (oven) with either electricity, gas, wood or charcoal as the source of heat.
One advantage of the open fire over the gas oven is that the set up cost is lower. However, the advantages of the kiln over the open fire are numerous and include temperature regulation, even distribution of heat, less contamination of the fish with the cancer causing Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), versatility of fuels for combustion to mention but a few.
Traditional Open Fire Method
I believe it is was from this method that the term “smoked catfish” was coined. This is because, with this method, the heat required is quite low (as opposed to regular cooking heat) and most times there’s a lot of smoke during the process. This is the most common method of drying fish in Nigeria and it involves the drying of the fresh fish on a smoking grate (smoking rack) with a bit of heat underneath from the burning of wood or charcoal. The rack might be placed on an open metal barrel or a mud structure. Ensure that the rack is slightly oiled before putting the fish on it and do not stack the fish on each other as this would make sum dry before others. Start a fire beneath the smoking rack and ensure that the heat is low especially for the first two hours . After the first two hours, you can increase the heat slightly. The drying time depends on the thickness of the fish, nature of the fuel, customer demand and weather. Avoid using wood or saw dust as these generate a lot of smoke while drying. The generated smoke if too much can cause the fish to be bitter and increase the concentration of the cancer causing PAHs. Charcoal is the preferred option.
This method requires the regular flipping of the fish from one side to another in order to ensure that all parts of the fish are properly dried.
Kiln (Oven) Method
This is the future of fish smoking because it’s faster, healthier, neater, more environmentally friendly and has more capacity than smoking over an open fire. However, it is more expensive to set up. Generally, most kilns use gas with the option of electricity, charcoal or wood. Some extra features such as a thermometer (to monitor the temperature), blower (for proper heat distribution), and insulation (to prevent heat loss) can be added at your behest, and that would cost you extra. These extras will reduce your drying time, ensure even output as well as reduce the effort required to dry the fish. My kiln has all the above features so once i put everything in motion, i can spend up to three hours without checking on the fish in the kiln.
Like the traditional method, you need to oil the smoking racks before stacking the fish. You put on the gas from beneath and adjust the flow of the gas to control the heat in the kiln. The ease of control that you have over the amount of heat in the kiln is another advantage of the kiln over the traditional open fire. There is no need to keep flipping the fish from side to side unlike the open fire method, especially if your kiln is fitted with a blower. Oven dried catfish generally last longer than open fire dried catfish because the heat is more evenly distributed throughout the fish (from the inside to the outside). You can use charcoal during the last one hour of drying to give your fish the “local aroma”.
As stated earlier, the drying time would depend on the thickness of the fish, nature of the fuel, customer demand and weather.
Market and Marketing
As with the fresh catfish, the market for the smoked catfish is also very large. One reason for this is that no major tribe or religion forbids the consumption of smoked catfish. Also, there are no age or gender restrictions to the consumption of smoked catfish. This means that you potential market in Nigeria alone is over 100 million! This is excluding Nigerians in diaspora. Once the fish has been properly smoked, it should be packaged according to the needs of the customer. For example, a big hotel or restaurant will require large quantities of smoked catfish at once and might not focus too much on packaging. In this case, a carton will be the best way to sell and transport it to them. On the other hand, a supermarket might require a different type of packaging. As for where to sell your smoked catfish, you can always start with selling to family and friends who will ultimately refer you to other people and businesses. Local hotels and restaurants are also places where your fish can be sold. Packaged smoked catfish can also be included in hampers and given as gifts during festive seasons.
As for how much to sell your smoked catfish for, first find out the cost of producing the smoked catfish including cost of firewood or gas, packaging, etc. When this is done, try to compare your price with the average market price. If your price is higher, look for innovative ways to reduce your cost of production. This might mean buying from a fish farm directly instead of from a fish market. Sometimes (especially when you use an oven), your price will be higher than those sold in the market. It is left to you to make your customers understand the quality they are getting when they buy from you. Also note that properly dried fish will lose between 70–75% of its body mass so factor this into you cost analysis and other calculations.
I hope from these two sessions, I have been able to give you a glimpse of what the catfish industry is like in Nigeria from breeding to smoking. There is neither enough fresh nor smoked catfish in Nigeria so there is plenty of room for you to join anywhere along the value chain. Feel free to ask me any question that you might have.
