ACIAR Project FIS/97/73 - Library - Network of Aquaculture Centres ...

Value of the researchSocial benefitThe development of sustainable grouper aquaculture technology will have impacts atall levels of the community in those countries involved in this industry. In Indonesia,many hatcheries are of the ‘backyard’ type – relatively small hatcheries that arebasically family-run operations. Income from these hatcheries is reported to be of theorder of Rp20,000 (AUD$3.50) for every three week production cycle (Dr A. Giri,pers. comm.). RSCF Gondol staff feel that production technology for groupers willbe rapidly taken up by these small hatcheries, because of the highly profitable natureof grouper aquaculture.In the Philippines, SEAFDECs TVP has found that there is excellent potential for theadaption of disused shrimp farms for grouper aquaculture. Currently, over 90% ofPhilippine shrimp farms lie idle because of shrimp disease problems. However,development of grouper farms is constrained by the limited availability of grouperfingerlings, which are available only from wild capture. Supply of hatchery-rearedfingerlings would enable these disused farms to be productively employed for grouperculture. Because of the intensive nature of finfish farming (in Australia, barramundifarms employ one person for about every 8 tonnes of production, and this wouldlikely be higher in the Philippines) the development of grouper farms from disusedshrimp farms would be an important source of employment for local people.Through the development of sustainable grouper aquaculture, employmentopportunities would be provided for people with a wide range of skills. Hatcherieshave a requirement for relatively skilled technicians, while farms utilise a wider rangeof skills, including relatively unskilled labour. Consequently, the development ofimproved grouper aquaculture technology will benefit a wide range of people in thecommunity.Economic benefitEconomic benefits resulting from this researched will be estimated during later stagesof the project. As detailed above, the first year of the project has involved developingseparate economic models for the three major phases of grouper aquaculture:hatchery, nursery and grow-out (ponds and cages). Future work will concentrate onfurther refining these models, and developing ‘model farms’ for Australia, Indonesiaand the Philippines using realistic commercial data. The model farms will then beused to estimate the benefits of the research outcomes of the ACIAR project.Existing information on the economic benefits of grouper aquaculture is summarisedbelow.AustraliaDPI’s Reef Fish Aquaculture Feasibility Study, carried out in 1995-96, predicted thatconsiderable benefits would flow from the development of reef fish aquaculture inAustralia. Costs to establish this industry were estimated at about $15 million over10–13 years. The benefit/cost model showed that a reef fish aquaculture industry inQueensland has the potential to be highly profitable, generating revenue in excess of$1 billion within 30 years under favourable conditions. Using an 8% discount rateover 40 years, the net present value of the research project could be of the order of$170 million, with a benefit/cost ratio of 17:1, and an internal rate of return of 29%.ACIAR Project FIS/97/73 – Annual Report – June 2000 30