Pompano (Trachinotus blochii) is now being farmed in Vietnam. Very popular in Asia, the white-fleshed fish is being trialed in Europe and the United States with encouraging results.
Morpol, which claims to be the world’s leading salmon processor and specializes in smoked products, is producing the fast-growing marine species at its fish farming site in central Vietnam.
Marine Farms Vietnam carried out a small test last year when it successfully reared 50,000 pompano. This year it will farm 1 million fish, according to Carlos Massad, CEO of the Vietnamese subsidiary.
“We have found it to be a very popular fish here in Asia, and when we tried it we thought it was a great fish,” he explained. “So we did a small test and found it to be a good fish to culture. So we increased our production.”
The fish are being presented whole, gilled and gutted, ready for grilling. “There are very few pinbones so the meat comes out very easily when grilled,” said Massad. “We produced 20 tons last year, of which 16 tons were sent to Morpol for testing the market in Europe. We also sent samples to the United States, where we hope to get a contract this season as we have more fish available. The rest were sold locally.”
Pompano is a deep-bodied silver-colored fish that is found in tropical shallow waters worldwide. Asian consumers love the fish. “China is a big local market, where they produce exactly the same fish that we do,” said Massad. “And they produce a lot of it in Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia.”
The fish take four to five months to reach a harvestable weight of 400 grams. This year, they were reared from fingerlings imported from Taiwan. “No one in Vietnam had the capability to produce what we needed,” said Massad. “But we are currently working with a local producer to be able to obtain the juveniles in Vietnam next year.”
The pompano are farmed in floating cages in Van Phong Bay, a sparsely populated area 50 kilometers north of the coastal city of Nha Trang. This is the same site where Marine Farms Vietnam has been farming cobia since 2005. “The two species are farmed in tandem,” said Massad. “It gives us two legs to stand on.”
As for cobia, it’s selling very well. “I wish I had more to sell,” he added.
There has been “an exceptional reception” to farmed cobia in Japan, where Massad himself handles sales. One 40-foot container with 20 tons of IQF skinless, boneless cobia fillets weighing 500 to 600 grams each is being shipped to the United States each month for sale by Nordic Group. “We are now in the supermarket trade there,” said Massad.
Massad explained that the price of Vietnamese cobia “is a little high for Europe,” so Morpol is moving much more into the value-added market. It’s introducing “scallopine” (cobia escalopes) into Germany under the Laschinger label, and at the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels last month the company was sampling slightly smoked cobia carpaccio in a flavoured olive oil with Parmesan cheese, again packed under Morpol’s Laschinger brand. “We’re very excited about this product,” said Massad.
These products are produced in Poland from IQF cobia loins delivered from Vietnam.
Marine Farms Vietnam is currently producing 500 to 600 tons of cobia per year, while 800 tons of pompano are being reared. While there is still work to do to reduce the cost of farming cobia, the future looks bright for pompano, which is which is a very popular fish and, in some cases, can sell at a higher per-pound price than beef.
