Farmer

As mentioned in the previous chapter, tilapia farming in Mexico is a fairly recent phenomenon (Morales, 1991; Fitzsimmons, 2000a) and remains a small sector within the national agro-industry. According to Alvarez et al (1999), 80% of the aquaculture in the

country is extensive or of low yields. The sector is mostly represented by small producers that live in the rural areas and complement their livelihood earnings with other activities in order to supplement their family income, e.g. work as seasonal labourers or as part-time farmers or occasional wage earners.

INEGI (2005) reported 2,665 aquaculture farms registered in the country by 2003. However, there was limited information available in relation to the number and distribution of commercial aquaculture operations in Mexico producing tilapia. At the time of the study, the latest national directory of aquaculture available was published by SEMARNAP (the predecessor of SAGARPA) in 2000. Table 2.1 shows the small number of tilapia farms listed in the directory per state, contrasting with the amount of farms of other species registered. Moreover, many of these businesses producing tilapia were no longer operating at the time of the study, depicting an inaccurate distribution of tilapia farms within the country.

Table 2.1 Number of tilapia farms in relation to other species, listed in the national aquaculture directory (SEMARNAP, 2000).

State Tilapia Other

Species Species

Jalisco 9 5 Catfish, bull frog & carp

Tabasco 9 3 Shrimp

Campeche 8 4 Snook

Veracruz 7 18 Oyster, crab, prawn, ornamental fish,

trout & shrimp

San Luis Potosi 6 0

Colima 4 4 Shrimp & Lobster

Michoacan 4 10 Trout, carp, catfish, bull frog,

ornamental fish & f. w. bass

Morelos 4 19 Ornamental fish, catfish, prawn &

trout

Coahuila 2 1 Cat fish

Durango 2 4 Catfish, trout & shrimp

Nuevo Leon 2 2 Catfish & snook

Tamaulipas 2 10 Shrimp & catfish

Yucatan 2 3 Shrimp & ornamental fish

Baja California 1 36 Oyster, clam, catfish, abalone,

shrimp & tuna.

Hidalgo 1 7 Trout

Queretaro 1 1 Catfish

Baja California Sur 0 13 Oyster, shrimp & clam

Chiapas 0 5 Shrimp

Chihuahua 0 4 Trout

Distrito Federal

(Mexico City) 0 6 Trout, shrimp & fresh water lobster

Guanajuato 0 8 Catfish, trout, carp, f. w. lobster, f.

w. bass

Guerrero 0 1 Shrimp

Mexico (State) 0 7 Trout

Nayarit 0 26 Shrimp & ornamental fish

Oaxaca 0 4 Shrimp

Puebla 0 8 Trout

Quintana Roo 0 1 Ornamental fish & frog

Sinaloa 0 94 Shrimp

Sonora 0 126 Shrimp, Oyster, clam & f. w. bass

Total 64 430

# of Farms (incl. hatcheries)

Nevertheless, some governmental institutions in a few states were able to provide up dated data of tilapia farms within their locality, i.e. Yucatan (21 farmers), Campeche (63 farms), Tabasco (303 farms), Veracruz (346 farms), Colima (15 farms), Jalisco (42 farms), Nayarit (9 farms), and Sonora (2 farms) (Integradora Maya Kay, 2004; Secretaria de Pesca del

Departamento de Acuacultura del Estado de Veracruz, 2002; Subdelegación de Pesca en Colima, 2003; Instituto de Acuacultura y Pesca del Estado de Jalisco, 2003; Dirección de Pesca del Estado de Nayarit, 2004; IAES, 2003). Many of these operations belonged to the social sector and very little was reported on private businesses, normally the ones trading farmed products.

Some authors (Fitzsimmons, 2000a; Alceste, 2000 and Watanabe, 2000) however, have described a number of important farms in Mexico, mainly located within the centre and north of the country (Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Jalisco, Chihuahua and Sonora), and employing more technologically advanced systems, i.e. concrete tanks, raceways, geothermal water, artificial aeration and intensive cultures. Though similar to the 2000 official directory, at the time of the study many of them were no longer operating.

Rivera-Arriaga et al (2001) further described as the main aquaculture coastal regions of the

country the states of Sinaloa and Sonora in the northern Pacific, Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico, and Tabasco (with some low-scale efforts). Although the former mostly referred to shrimp farming, they also highlighted the potential of these regions for the culture of other tropical species like tilapia, and more prone to attract new entrepreneurs.

2.3.2 Fisherman

A practice that contributes significantly to tilapia production throughout Mexico is stocking and harvesting from reservoirs, envisioned by the government as “ranching” operations in which hatchery reared juveniles would be stocked in the water bodies and allowed to grow. This activity was defined by the Mexican government as “aquacultural- fisheries”, but for the purpose of the study, both fisheries and aquacultural-fisheries were included into the fishermen or catching sector analysis. According to Fitzsimmons (2000a), fishermen were commonly resettled families and rural communities located near by the water bodies, harvesing the fish for direct consumption or sale to local markets. The typical equipment employed was a small boat (< 10 t capacity) and gillnets (officially up to 5

gillnets per fisherman in some of the major reservoirs) (Perez-Velazquez et al., 2002; SAGARPA, 2004a).

According to Fitzsimmons (2000a), tilapia is now found in almost every state in Mexico and is established in the wild across much of the country. Nevertheless, some regions produce more than others, as shown in Figure 2.2, Veracruz and Michoacan were the major tilapia producing states in Mexico in 2003, with 17,580 and 13,758 t respectively, followed by Sinaloa, Nayarit and Tabasco with between 5,700 and 6,000 t each. Other important fisheries were located within the states of Chiapas, Campeche, Jalisco, Tamaulipas and Sonora. Appendixes 1, 2 and 3 list and describe the major rivers, lakes and reservoirs in the country, in which most of the major tilapia fisheries would be located; Figures 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6 show the geographical location of major rivers, lakes and reservoirs in the country.

2.3.3 Middleman

Middlemen were found to be specialised in trading tilapia products from the catching sector only, as farmed products were commonly higher in price, smaller outputs and inconsistent supply. The role of the middlemen was mainly to collect the tilapia from the fishermen, in some cases process the product (i.e. filleting), and deliver it to their clients, usually wholesalers. Their premises were modest, commonly including a collection point or landing area in the reservoir, vehicles for transportation (typically a 3.5 t truck with an open or closed box), and in the case of some larger middlemen, also a rustic processing plant.

Uncontrolled distribution and placement of fishing nets; many fisheries have defined

breeding grounds or migration routs during breeding season where fishing is banned (SAGARPA, 2004a), however, this regulation was reportedly ignored by most of the badly managed fisheries.

product was taken to an established collection point to be weighted and sold to traders. Fish would commonly be placed in a truck (1 or 3.5 t capacity) equipped sometimes with a thermo-insulated box, layered with ice or in bulk (see Figure 3.3).

Figure 2.2 Production of tilapia in Mexico by Sates (Based on CONAPESCA, 2003).

2.3.4 Importer

The hot-spots for international trade in Mexico are located in bordering cities, major cities and large merchant ports. However, the majority of the tilapia imported entered through the USA and recently Canada (Reyes, 2003a). Thus major bordering cities in the north represented the main locale for tilapia importers. The main role of these operators was to

deal with all legal and administrative procedures to bring imported tilapia products into the country and supply the marketing chain.