Red-drum (Sciaenops ocellata) farming in Martinique: a new prospect for Caribbean marine aquaculture ?

• Main Author: Paquotte, Philippe
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: Communication at the IIFET Conference Tromso 1998 1998
• Subjects: economic analysis; seafood market study; coastal management; Caribbean; aquaculture; SEM; Red drum
• Online Access: https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/1998/acte-2546.pdf; https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/2546/

(not controled OCR) like most other caribbean islands, martinique suffers a reduction in fisheries resources and is now a net importer of seafood products since no major expansion of aquaculture production has been done. nevertheless, this island has numerous assets for marine aquaculture development : tropical clean waters, developed infrastructures and market channels, financial support for research, training and extension due to its tight political and economic connection with france. red drum is a subtropical fish introduced in martinique in 1985 from the south of usa for aquaculture purposes. from 1987 to 1993, ifremer worked on rearing techniques in martiniquan conditions. once the farming techniques were perfected, questions raised about red drum marketing potential and of economic viability of red drum farms in order to attract investments and entrepreneurs. that is the reason why a market analysis and a financial analysis have been carried out. the results of these studies indicate that martiniquan fish farming could be profitable, due to the rapid build-up of the facilities and to the sho rt production cycles. the good quality of infrastructures in martinique, the high purchase power of the population in comparison with most caribbean islands and the frequent air links with europe are important comparative advantages. the market analysis has revealed a good potential on the domestic market thanks to the development of the supermarkets, but has underlined the price constraint. for the french market too, production costs have to be lowered in order to compete on a market dominated by salmon.