U Soe Tun Sustainable Seafood Industry DevelopmentProject, APA,Surabaya, 27 th April, 2016

Past History in Myanmar Since World War II, Tilapia became very common food fish because of its hardiness, good growth and short grow out time. Myanmar Dept of Fisheries imported Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) from Thailand in O. niloticus and O. aureus was introduced in 1976 by Peoples’ Pearl and Fisheries Corporation from Israel.

Past History(2) Farmers produced many fries, fingerlings within 3- 4 months U Tin Maung Than graduated from AIT and introduced Nile Tilapia (O. niloticus) in He and his group produced mono-sex Tilapia in Dha Pein. However at that time demand was very low.

Past History(3) Second attempt production was done again in 2001 with his colleague U Htin Aung Kyaw at Ngwe Zar Pele private company at Ywar Thar Gyi near Yangon. Three more mono-sex hatcheries were operated in Bago, Twantay and Pathein in Total production of 20 – 40 million fingerlings per month was produced. After Cyclone Nargis in 2008 all hatcheries were shutdown because of damage and low demand

Past History (4) Cyclone Nargis destroyed most Tilapia and other fish ponds. Tilapia was spread all over the country. Farmers were not able to restart the farms. At the same time Tilapia and other fishery products were hit by trade embargo and Myanmar was not able to export to USA and EU at that time.

Current Nowadays, tilapia spawn without control in many polyculture ponds with rohu, common carp, catla and catfish. Only a few hatcheries produced mono-sex Tilapia. Only a few farmers import Tilapia seed from Thailand

SWOT Analysis of Culturing Tilapia in Myanmar STRENGTHS Favorable climatic condition and excellent fertile land available for further advancement of fish seed production Easy establishment of breeding and training stations High demand of fish seed Skilled and unskilled laborers with low labor costs are locally available

WEAKNESS Poor extension services including lack of technology transfer to rural areas Poor knowledge of induced fish breeding techniques Insufficient staff, lack of record keeping of each species and lack of registration of private hatcheries in DoF office Unavailability of appropriate modern technology Unavailability of synthetic hormones in the market Road and infrastructure under developed in rural areas Lack of electricity in rural areas SWOT Analysis of Culturing Tilapia

SWOT analysis for culturing Tilapia Opportunities More demand for fish seed because natural production of fish reduced by agricultural wastes and floods Number of grow out ponds may increase to meet increasing fish consumption rate Ever increasing consumption of fish due to increasing population

SWOT analysis for culturing Tilapia THREAT Pond farming area is gradually reducing due to agriculture expansion Majority of hatcheries never restock new brood fish from different sources. This favors inbreeding The cost of main feed ingredients like rice bran, broken rice and ground nut cake are increasing The land cost is high in peri-urban areas due to expanding human settlement.

Present Status More market demand than previous time due to increased tourism and economic expansion Species diversification to more valuable fish instead of fresh water carps (ie: Rohu,Common and Indian carps ) most farmers like to change species but no assistance for seed supply and technology Many farmers had difficulty to have access to finance and for them to make their big size pond smaller they need financial assistance

Present Status Only one feed plant is producing floating pellets According to the estimate by the Feed Producers Association of Myanmar, we will need 12 feed plants producing 250 tons of feed per day for fish feed At present the demand for Tilapia is very strong, the farm sale price is $1.10 per kg and the cost of production is around $0.8 per kg. The feed price is $0.55 per kg and farmers are having difficulty to make a profit although the demand is strong.

SEED PRODUCTION BY FISH HATCHERIES UNDER Department of Fisheries in MYANMAR, 2014 Unit - Million Tilapia

Scope for expansion of the Industry Sustainable Seafood Industry Development Project by University of Arizona and Yangon University, supported by USAID. In its 2 nd Year it has programs to link to Regal Springs (a multinational company) with Myanmar counterparts for the production of tilapia in cages in appropriate reservoirs of Myanmar. The seed production of various economically important species is in the program of assistance by EU which should commence in There are also some companies trying to build Mini RAS system to produce Tilapia, sea bass and some local catfish

Production and export in 2014 (prov:) Myanmar had a population of 56 million people Total production of Aquaculture, leasable fisheries, open fisheries and marine fisheries was 5,047,530 Tons Total production from aquaculture alone was 964,260 Tons Rohu production was 68,314 tons (export value = mill US$) and was one of the top 10 producing species Total fishery export in 2014 was – 345,267 Tons and the value of export in US $ was million. There is a need to incorporate production of Tilapia with good planning and support.

Future trends There should be a consistent effort for both the government and the farmers to increase Tilapia production Myanmar Fisheries Federation is making effort to inform the fish farmers to culture more tilapia There has been effort to bring in GIFT Tilapia from World Fish.

Foreseeable future Tilapia will continue to be a player for the increasing global population China’s growing middle class will be double in the coming years Myanmar’s position between China and India give chances to sell quality products which will benefit both Nations Without big industries and water pollution Myanmar water bodies still are able to produce more Tilapia. There are many farmers willing to do joint ventures Personally I would like to invite more investors to check and joins hands with Myanmar farmers in future. So I would like to welcome all investors to MYANMAR

GIFT - Tilapia from WorldFish for Myanmar World Fish “Base Population” of Tilapia were from wild Nile tilapia from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal and four local strains in Philippines (from Israel, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand) In on station trial, GIFT strain was reported to show an average 60% faster growth and 50% survival than local strains WorldFish based in Malaysia took 6 th generation (61 families) and initiated joint collaborative genetic selection program with DOF. Malaysia at Jitra Station This year (2016), Myanmar will receive 14 th generation of improved GIFT from Jitra station World Fish and DOF Myanmar will be working closely for this project.

Thank you