How to Start and Market the Results of Pomfret Cultivation

Pomfret cultivation has quite promising business potential. Many people in Indonesia like this freshwater fish because it is delicious and suitable for cooking with any recipe.

Naturally, every year the demand for pomfret is increasing. The capital needed to start a pomfret farming agribusiness is quite affordable, under IDR 5 million. Pomfret fish can survive in tarpaulin ponds so they can cut operational costs for fish farming.

To get started, you can listen to the following information regarding the factors needed for pomfret cultivation.

Pomfret Cultivation Business Opportunities in Indonesia

You can start a pomfret farming business with capital starting from IDR 2 million. This capital includes the cost of making a pond for cultivation, the cost of buying pomfret seeds (depending on the number of seeds purchased), to the initial operational costs.

While the net profit that will be obtained can reach 27 percent per month. Take for example if you start a fish farming business with a capital of IDR 7.7 million. Assume that you sell at least 12 pomfret fish a day at a price of IDR 22,000.

So in one month, gross income can reach IDR 7.9 million. Also assume that the required operational costs are IDR 5.7 million per month. So, the net profit earned is around IDR 2.2 million per month.

If the net profit is routinely obtained, it is not impossible that in less than four months you will be able to return your investment.

It is possible that this profit will exceed the calculation above because according to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, every month there is always a demand for three to four tons of pomfret in the local market. 

Not to mention the demand for pomfret exports which is increasing day by day, especially in Singapore and Malaysia.

It looks so tempting that the profits of the pomfret cultivation business do not make you escape some of the weaknesses and advantages of the pomfret cultivation business.

The profit of the pomfret farming business certainly generates a stable profit every month because demand is always increasing both domestically and abroad.

However, there are several factors that become obstacles in carrying out pomfret farming. 

Among these are the possibility of reduced appetite for pomfret, pomfret infected with white spot disease, pomfret has slow movement, or bleeding occurs in the fins, gills and skin of the fish.

To overcome these obstacles, there is only one main key, namely paying attention to the quality and temperature of the water in the aquaculture pond by changing the water regularly and giving some vitamins or vaccinations.

Therefore, you need to understand correctly how to cultivate pomfret in order to produce large and healthy fish.

How to Cultivate Pomfret Fish

The stages of how to cultivate pomfret starting from preparing fish farming ponds, sowing seeds, how to feed pomfret, caring for it, to harvesting pomfret are as follows.

1. Make a Pomfret Pond

There are three types of ponds used for pomfret cultivation, including tarpaulin ponds, earthen ponds and wall ponds. The costs that need to be prepared to build the three ponds are different.

If capital is limited, you should do pomfret cultivation using a tarpaulin pond. 

However, if it turns out that you have sufficient capital to build an earthen pond or wall pond, then it is fine to cultivate pomfret in an earthen pond or wall pond. For each pool has a different preparation.

• Tarpaulin Pool

You need to pay attention to the cleanliness of the tarpaulin pool before filling it with clean water and sowing the seeds. 

After making sure that the tarpaulin pond is clean and free of dirt, you can fill the tarpaulin pond with clean water as high as 30 to 50 centimeters, depending on the number of pomfret fish to be cultivated.

Next, spread the solution, vitamins, or additional fertilizer and let it sit for a few days so you can then spread the pomfret seeds.

• Ground Pool

Meanwhile, in the land pool is needed treatments specifically, among them is cleaning the ground pool, especially the bottom of the ground and dry it. 

Cover the soil walls using a barrier to minimize leakage and apply quicklime with a dose of 25 kilograms so that the soil pH increases and eliminates ponds from pests that settle in the soil.

Add manure with a content of 25 to 50 kilograms for a pond of 100 square meters. 

Next, you can add 3 centimeters of water and let it sit for 2-3 days. Gradually add water up to 40-60 centimeters high and 80-120 centimeters high.

However, the final height of the aquaculture pond depends on the number of pomfret being cultivated. Before sowing the seeds, leave the pond for at least 7 days to ensure that the pond has been overgrown with phytoplankton and zooplankton. When the color of the pond has changed to bright green, you can sow pomfret seeds.

2. Selecting and Spreading Pomfret Fish Seeds

Tips for choosing the best quality pomfret seeds are to pay attention to their size, ideally the best pomfret seeds are 5 to 8 centimeters. The pomfret seeds have no physical defects, the color of each seed is almost the same, and the seeds are actively moving in the pond.

The correct way to spread pomfret seeds is to use the acclimatization method through an adaptation process. Let the plastic with the seeds sit on the surface of the water for some time until you see that the plastic is dewy. 

The goal is that the pomfret seeds can adapt to the temperature of the cultivation pond. Because, if you skip this stage, the worst impact will be the premature death of pomfret fry.

After the plastic has condensed, you can slowly release the seeds and let them swim by themselves towards the cultivation pond. 

Especially for tarpaulin ponds, ideally the density of pomfret seeds ranges from 100 to 150 fish per meter with seed sizes between 5 to 12 centimeters.

3. Provide Correct Pomfret Feed

The cost of providing pomfret feed can reach 60 percent of the total operational and production costs of pomfret aquaculture. Therefore, you must carefully consider when choosing pomfret food and how to feed it.

Pomfret feed must contain several good nutrients such as protein, vitamins, carbohydrates, fats, and minerals to help pomfret fish grow. 

Pomfret belongs to the omnivorous type of fish, meaning that you can mix pomfret feed accordingly budget. Pomfret can consume animal, vegetable or pellet feed.

The amount of feed given for one meal is 3% to 5% of the sampling weight of pomfret with a minimum protein content of 25%. Mix fish feed with lipopolysaccharide vitamins to boost pomfret growth.

Give pomfret feed three times a day. Make sure that the feed spread is evenly distributed throughout the pond.

4. Caring for Pomfret Health

It was found in several cases that the number of pomfret when entering the harvest time actually decreased quite drastically from the estimated harvest time. This happens because fish cultivators pay less attention to the health of pomfret.

Pomfret can also be infected by several pests and diseases such as Ichtyopthirius, mold/mushroom, Streptococcus, and Kurthia sp. In addition, pomfret also often experience stress which can inhibit the growth of pomfret or the worst impact is premature death.

To avoid this, you need to maintain the quality of the aquaculture pond water by paying attention to the following factors:

• Maintain the pool water temperature at a temperature of 25 degrees to 30 degrees Celsius.
• Maintain the pH of the water in the range of 6.5 to 8.5.
• Mix pool water with dissolved oxygen as much as 5 mg/L.
• Mixing with ammonia content of less than 0.02 mg/L.
• Ensure the brightness of the water so that light can penetrate more than 30 centimeters.
• Pay attention to O2 and CO2 levels in pool water.

5. Harvesting Pomfret

The final stage of how to cultivate pomfret is the process of harvesting pomfret. Ideally, you can harvest pomfret when they are 4-6 months old or the fish weigh between 300 and 500 grams per head.

However, it is possible for pomfret to be harvested under this ideal time, provided there is demand from the market. However, unfortunately you will sell pomfret in small sizes so this will affect the selling price.

It is recommended to harvest pomfret in the morning or evening by draining the cultivated fish pond first so that 25 to 30 percent water remains. After that, you can only take pomfret.

Tips for Successful Pomfret Cultivation Business

We recommend that before carrying out pomfret cultivation, you need to prepare business plan by considering several things such as business structure and strategy, knowing and knowing the target market, knowing how to market products, knowing business competitors, and preparing financial and operational planning.

So, preparing capital alone is not enough to develop a business, especially the pomfret aquaculture agribusiness. Tips for a successful business, including:

1. Maintain the quality and quantity of pomfret.
2. Ensuring the quality of pomfret seed and feed.
3. Able to read opportunities.
4. Providing the best service for consumers.
5. Feel confident and don't give up easily when you encounter business obstacles.
6. Plan the best business marketing strategy.

When explained in detail, actually there are many targets for this pomfret cultivation business, starting from fish collectors and traders in traditional markets, offering restaurants and restaurants, to directly offering it to housewives for daily consumption.

You need to manage this target market so that you consistently consume pomfret through your business. You do this by creating and developing a marketing strategy by:

1. Selling pomfret at competitive prices.
2. Give promotions.
3. Provides a variety of selling prices in the form of packages.
4. Utilizing digital marketing as a marketing tool. Can be through social media or platforms on line other.