Economic Evaluation of The Newly Developed Fish Meal Analog (BAIFA-M)

양어사료의 어분대체품 개발의 경제성 분석

This study was conducted to examine the economic evaluation of the newly developed fish meal analog (BAIFA-M) in Korean rockfish feed. A raw fish feed (MP) and two commercially formulated diets (EP) were employed to compare weight gain (WG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and survival rate (SR) from the sea cage culture system. By using the economic model in the practical sea cage culture system, feed cost, production cost and gross profit per kg production, rate of profit to gross revenue (RPGR), and internal rate of return (IRR) were calculated based upon the results of the experiment and the information of the private aquaculture farm (Young Chang) in Tong young, Korean. IRR criteria is one of the popular economic feasibility analysis methods applicable far aquaculture industry. This is an economic evaluation method to compare the given interest rate or the discount rate with IRR which can be calculated by the difference between the present value of the benefit stream and of the cost stream. The benefits of using EP on WG, FCR, SR, and production cost will be emphasized in this study. Fish averaging 20$\pm$3.6g (Mean$\pm$SD) were randomly distributed in each small cage (6m$\times$6m) as groups of 2,000 fish. By using 3 large size cages (12m$\times$12m), 12 small cages were constructed, and only 9 small cages were employed for three replicates of each diet treatment. To compare with MP diet, two sinking EP diets were designed by our laboratory and produced by the local feed company who wanted to promote these EP diets for the mass cage culture of Korean rockfish in the future. Two EP diets contain white fish meal and/or BAIFA-M as the main animal protein sources : WFM diet, maximum 43% of white fish meal : BAIEA- M diet, 30% of white fish meal nab replaced by BAIFA- M from WFM diet. Results are summarized in Table 1. Fish fed MP diet showed significantly lower SR than does fish fed two EP diets(P<0.05). However, there Were no significant difference on FCR among fish fed three practical diets. Table 1. Average feed conversion ratio (FCR), accumulative average survival rate (SR) and economic evaluation data far three practical diets. As we expected, BAIFA-M diet is more economical than WFM diet as well as MP diet. Feed cost and production cost per kg production from BAIEA - M diet were lower than those from WFM and MP diets. Moreover, gross profit per Kg production, RPGR and IRR from BAIFA- M diet were higher than those from WFM and MP diets. This economic evaluation study clearly indicated that MP diet should be replaced by the commerical formulated EP diets as soon as possible in the near future because MP diet is not economical in the practical sea cage culture system.