Md. Shohel Sarker
Faculty of Business Administration
Executive MBA, Roll- 951, Management & OB
University of Science and Technology Chittagong
Chattogram, Bangladesh
SWOT Analysis of Fish Farming Business
The SWOT Analysis below shows the possible strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
anyone going into fish farming business may face. While it is not possible for all situations to
apply at the same time, going through the points mentioned will help you identify the situation that
is peculiar to you.
Strengths
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Practical skills
Good water
Physically fit
Working capital
Home operated business
Premium price
Good infrastructure
Weaknesses
• High cost of feeding
• Lack of infrastructure
• Production output not predictable
• Low technical skill
• Poor marketing
• It requires attention
Threats
Opportunities
• Local demand
• High demand
• Low wages
• Ban of imported frozen fishes
• Tax incentives
• Low competition
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Cheap import from overseas
Predators
Diseases
Irregular supplies of feeds
Flooding
Drought
Theft
Strengths
Above every other thing, if you want to start a fish farming business, you need a practical
experience. As already mentioned above, the best way to acquire the skills for fish farming is to
work as an apprentice in a fish farm. Having practical experience can reduce the risks involved in
running a fish farming business considerably.
Water is the habitation for fishes. Each species of fishes requires specific environment to survive.
Therefore, you cannot say you want to start fish farming just because you have access to water.
The quality of the water has to be tested to be sure that the level of alkaline present in the water is
suitable for the fishes you want to grow. This is one of the technical aspects of the business.
Anybody that will start fish farming business is supposed to be physically fit. Starting from sorting
of ‘grow-outs’ to harvesting of mature fishes; the business requires a certain level of energy. It
also depends on the scale of your fishing farming business. If you operate natural ponds, you
should be able to swim.
I have seen a lot of people rushing into fish farming business without having adequate working
capital. After the initial investment, you need funds to buy feeds. When your fishes are still at fries
or fingerling stage, they may not consume much. But as they continue to grow, their daily intakes
of feeds also increases. I had this practical experience from my wife when she was operating her
mini fish farming business from our backyard. We had six tanks with the capacity of two hundred
fishes per tank. I accompanied her to where she bought the fingerling. Left for me, I would have
bought one thousand fingerling for the five tanks while the sixth tank served as water tank where
the water would get treated before releasing it to the fishes. Based on her experience, she bought
just eight hundred fingerling. She said that the fifth tank would be used for sorting. Besides, we
need enough money to keep as working capital so that we could feed the fishes well. Just as she
said, by the time the fishes entered their second month, we had already ran out of cash. We needed
to source for funds elsewhere for us to feed the fishes until they grew to table size. Therefore, it is
expected that you have enough working capital that will take you through the growing stage of the
fishes. If you buy the right species and feed them well, you should be able to harvest the first set
after three months.
It is more advantageous to have your fish pond around or very close to your house. With this, you
can run it as a home based business. Fishes requires attention in the morning, afternoon and
evening for seven days of the week. Therefore, having your fish farm close to you is a plus. It will
even prevent predators and thieves from invading your fish farm.
You need basic infrastructure such as electricity for the pumping of water and aeration of the
ponds. Except you operate earthen ponds, you need to change the water in the vat constantly. If
you stock the vats with fishes to their maximum capacity, the water should be well aerated.
If you have a target market where you can sell your fishes at premium prices, this is a good strength.
Such market may include selling to hotels and restaurants.
Weaknesses
If you go through the weaknesses stated in the SWOT analysis template above, it is advisable you
address them before starting a fish farm. One of the pronounced weaknesses in fish farming
business is the unpredictability of the production output. This implies that you need to create best
and worst scenarios when drawing up your revenue forecast. If your projections signal that you
may not be able to recover your costs, you may need to find a way of reducing your costs without
imparting on the quality of your fishes. If this is not possible, then starting a fish farming may not
be feasible for you. For instance, the cost of fish feeds is very high. If you want to depend on
foreign feeds, you may not be able to break even not to talk about making profits. However, if you
can produce your own local feeds, this will cut down your costs considerably. You just need to get
the formula right. Also, you should ensure that you don’t feed your fish excessively. The
misconception people have about feeding fish is that, they think if you give them much feeds, the
fish will grow very fast. This is not true. You only need to give them what they need per time. It
is even better to give them little feeds more frequently than to over-feed them at once. The fish
may seem like picking the feeds on the surface. The truth is that a lot of the feeds settle down at
the bottom of the pond except you are using floating feeds. Left over feeds could be poisonous to
fish. This makes you to lose at both sides. You will be wasting your feeds thereby increasing your
costs and at the same time increasing the fish mortality rate thereby reducing your output.
Fish also requires attention. You need to be around so as to prevent predators. Also, you need to
be very sensitive to the behavior of the fishes. The fact that they ate very well in the previous
night does not mean they are going to eat at the same rate the following day. Strange behavior on
their part may signal sickness or disease. Once one fish is infected, it can easily spread to other
ones. But if you are sensitive enough, you can quickly curb the spreading.
Opportunities
There are certain factors that can help fish farming business to thrive. Few of them will be
discussed here:
If there is large and growing local demand for fishes in your area, this means that you can be sure
of the marketability of the fishes immediately they reach table size. Keeping fishes beyond
reasonable period may make the business to turn unprofitable due to the cost of feeds.
Recent ban on importation of frozen fishes is a good omen that the market for locally raised fishes
will grow. Also, tax incentives to local farmers will increase the profitability of the fish farming
business. The money fish farmers would have used to pay tax can be used to grow their businesses.
The competition in fisheries is still low in the country. One can quickly take advantage of this
coupled with the tax incentives to farmers (if it exists in your country) to establish oneself.
Threats
Fish farming business is not without threats. Natural disasters such as drought and flood can
adversely affect those that operate earthen ponds. You should be prepared to develop a strategy to
counter this. In case of flood, you can protect your ponds with netted fence so as to prevent erosion
from carrying your fishes away. In case of drought, digging a borehole for your fish farm will
ensure you constantly have water supplied to your ponds.
The enemies of fishes such as predators and even thieves can be prevented through close
monitoring and by paying adequate attentions to the ponds.
If you suffer irregular supplies of feeds, it is advisable that you buy in bulk in other to avoid
stock out. Sourcing for locally made feeds can equally be a good alternative.
Regular preventive treatments of the fishes will prevent sickness and diseases among the fishes.
If you spot any sick fish, it should be quickly isolated before the disease is spread to other fishes.