I See through Everything

Fang Yi had actually been leading the workers through several trial production runs these past few days, gathering a lot of firsthand data. He quickly began to explain:

"The meal yield for the Egyptian Catfish is decent, around 22%. The crude protein content of the fish meal is 67% to 68%. The oil yield is about 11.5%, but the portion that can be refined into unsaturated fatty acid fish oil is about 3.5%, which is on the high side."

Jiang Miao wasn’t too disappointed by this.

This meal and oil yield meant that every ton of fresh Egyptian Catfish could produce 220 kilograms of fish meal and 115 kilograms of crude fish oil.

As for the fish meal, the current wholesale market price was 12 to 17 yuan per kilogram, so 220 kilograms would be worth roughly 2,640 to 3,740 yuan.

Meanwhile, Hailufeng Company purchased Egyptian Catfish at a price of 3 yuan per kilogram, which was 3,000 yuan per ton. On the surface, it looked like there was a risk of taking a loss.

In reality, if they were only producing fish meal, there would indeed be a risk of loss.

However, Hailufeng Company’s feed factory wouldn’t be selling the fish meal directly. Instead, they would use it as a raw material to produce high-value feed.

Additionally, the by-product of fish meal production—crude fish oil—could also generate economic benefits.

The price of crude fish oil depends on its unsaturated fatty acid content. The unsaturated fatty acid content in the oil from Egyptian Catfish is very high, at about 30%, which means its price is even higher.

The current market price could reach about 35 yuan per kilogram. Therefore, 115 kilograms of crude fish oil was worth around 4,025 yuan.

In other words, after processing and refining, the total value of the fish meal and fish oil produced from one ton of Egyptian Catfish could reach approximately 6,665 to 7,765 yuan.

Factoring in the purchase price of the Egyptian Catfish, plus factory equipment depreciation, utilities, site fees, and labor, the total production cost per ton of Egyptian Catfish was about 3,600 yuan. This meant the gross profit could be between 3,065 and 4,165 yuan.

’The Egyptian Catfish really is an overlooked gem of a fish.’

If it weren’t for the high geosmin content in its fish meal, many feed factories would have probably started using Egyptian Catfish as a raw material long ago.

The profits from the fish meal and oil could further offset the factory’s investment costs and also allow them to supply cheaper feed to the farms.

Jiang Miao rubbed his chin. "The 1,500-mu contract for farming Egyptian Catfish we signed earlier doesn’t seem to be enough now. But let’s stick to this production capacity for a while first."

"I agree with your idea, Boss." Fang Yi knew the company’s feed had limitless potential, but the problem was that the market hadn’t been established yet. Rushing to ramp up too much capacity now could very well lead to an inventory surplus.

After all, feed has a shelf life, especially high-protein fish feed.

Under normal, non-refrigerated storage conditions away from light, fish feed can be stored for about 45 days in the summer, 60 days in spring and autumn, and for around 150 days in the winter at sub-zero temperatures.

Therefore, Jiang Miao preferred to move a bit slower rather than blindly expand production capacity.

The reason Fang Yi believed the company’s feed had limitless potential was that he had seen the results of feeding it to the fish.

Jiang Miao’s specially formulated eel feeds came in three types: Hai Xue eel feed, fattening eel feed, and deodorizing eel feed.

The most heavily used of these was the fattening eel feed. Its formula was: 76.53% Egyptian Catfish Meal, 2.18% Egyptian Catfish oil, 2.12% tapioca starch, 9.69% high-gluten wheat flour, 3.24% brewer’s yeast, 0.86% sodium caseinate, and 1.67% pork liver powder. The remainder consisted of various vitamins, minerals, and trace compounds.

This formula seemed quite different from the current mainstream formulas for adult eel feed, especially with its 3.47% reduction in fish meal content.

But in reality, Jiang Miao’s formula was the most impressive. It could basically grow an eel from a leptocephalus to a mature, 1.5 to 1.8-kilogram silver eel in just six months.

Normally, the farming cycle at an eel farm is about a year, and it takes an average of 2.5 tons of feed to produce one ton of mature eels.

Using the eel feed formulated by Jiang Miao, the total feed required over the entire growth cycle could be reduced by about 30%, meaning only 1.85 tons of fish feed would be needed. This indirectly lowered the farming costs.

There was a huge difference in the feed conversion ratio between the fish feed produced by other companies and the feed from Hailufeng Company.

One was 1:2.5.

The other was 1:1.85.

The difference might look like just 0.65, but in reality, this gap was enormous. You have to understand that the current market price for eel feed is generally between 11,000 to 14,000 yuan per ton.

A reduction of 0.65 in feed consumption meant that the cost per ton of mature silver eels dropped by nearly 10,000 yuan.

Moreover, the fish feed produced by Hailufeng Company had another advantage: it halved the time cost. Originally, you could only raise one batch of eels per year, but now you could raise two.

Combined with the feed that eliminates the earthy flavor, this was a recipe for absolutely dominating the market.

Of course, considering the overall benefits, the price of the feed produced by the company couldn’t be too low. The market price would have to be at least 15,000 yuan per ton.

Even at this price, it still held a huge advantage over cheaper eel feeds priced at 12,000 yuan per ton, because less of it was needed and the production cycle was only about half a year, making the overall efficiency remarkable.

For the deodorizing feed used in the later stages, in particular, the company’s cost accounting and product pricing office had set a preliminary price of 20,000 yuan per ton, the same price as the Hai Xue feed.

As long as farmers followed the eel farming techniques provided by Hailufeng Company, their entire production cycle would be seven months.