Smoked catfish business is a venture that is yet to be fully tapped into. Despite the huge income that comes from it, only few people are tapping the opportunities available in the business.
One of the major attractions responsible for the increasing demand for the product is its nutritional benefits. About 100 grams of the fish contain 36 per cent of protein needed by the body daily. It contains about 32 per cent of Sodium, Vitamin B (55 per cent), total fat (six per cent), and Iron (4 per cent) among others.
Managing Director, RichMeal Fish, Mr. Azubike Anyanwu, says that it involves little capital to set up as you can start out with as low as N30,000, depending on the scale you want to begin with and the good thing is that the major sole of the business, which is the drying machine or local oven is readily available for purchase. All you need to do is to get an oven or drying machine from a good welder. It is usually costly, buying an oven from the market. The prices are usually dependent on the size of your choice.
Make sure the fish is totally dry and free of moisture because if it is not well smoked and dried, they have a high tendency of being prone to insect infestation and mould growth
RECALL
• Start-up capital is little
• Health benefit is high
• It is highly profitable
• Involves less stress
According to Anyanwu, the assurance is that you can get it locally made if you are just starting out. You can get the drying oven as low as between N7000 and N10,000. You can even get the readily made ones at Onipanu and Owode Onirin in Lagos State, as they are of different kinds. Dealing on dried and smoked catfish is a business with wider appeal.
Put simply, all that is required for the business is: buying fishes, processing, smoke-drying it, packaging it in a branded polythene bag and having them out to the public. The drying machine is of three types. There is the wood, coal, gas and electricity-powered dryer. As a starter, you can use the coal-powered dryer as coal is not so expensive to get. The smoked and dried fish must be well processed and preserved. If the fish is not properly smoked, it may end up with high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Make sure the fish is totally dry and free of moisture because if it is not well smoked and dried, they have a high tendency of being prone to insect infestation and mould growth, which significantly reduces the quality of the product, and of course, the money you can make from them, especially if it is to be exported.
As your business increases, you can now go for more sophisticated ones of between N100,000 and N200,000 and the good thing about this is that it is capable of drying good number of fishes quicker in an internationally acceptable way. The profit potentials in smoked catfish business is huge as a kilogramme of catfish goes for between N400 and N600.
Each of these costs about N100 to have it processed and packaged. Then you can retail to your customers at the rate of N1,500 or more. You can as well take your goods to some supermarkets at the rate of N800 or N1,000 while they sell at any price of their choice.
Assuming in a whole month, all you are able to dry and sell to your customers are just 1,500 packs and each sold at a moderate price of N1,000, multiply that by 1,500 while you remove your cost price per one, which may not be up to N600; add up what you get and then compare it with what top average office workers earn per month.
You will see that there is good profit waiting to be made from smoked catfish if you handle it like a serious business locally, not to talk of expanding your business beyond the shores of this country.
When you have all this done, rest assured that your products would be accepted anywhere be it supermarkets, open markets, offices and women gatherings. When you take your fish to the supermarkets, you may not be able to receive your cash immediately as most of them will not pay you unless your goods are sold.
You must have it in mind that if you are able to meet up with the required standard and have your fish properly garnished, hygienically packed, appetising to the eyes, that on its own may turn your products to hotcake in the market making even the supermarkets to be paying you in advance for delivery.
You can advertise your product through words of mouth, fliers or your social media handles as they are expected to make it much easier to penetrate the market because you can share information about your products with your friends and contacts.
As time goes on, you can open an online store, which affords you the opportunity to be available 24 hours, which is cheaper to run and very flexible. As the profit potentials in dry catfish business is huge, the demands for Nigerian dried catfish are even more in abroad but the simple truth is that, the local market demands have not yet been met.
