Thriving mud crab business
Compiled by MARAIA VULA
Welcome to Hard Talk, where we pose questions to both top executives and budding entrepreneurs on some of the major issues involving business.
You can be sure of one of the things Fijians living abroad love to take back after visiting home: Seafood.
Whether it is prawn, fish or crab, the seafood from Fiji is always high in demand for Fijians residing overseas. This is essentially because it is naturally bred and has unique taste.
The decision by Wilco Liebregts to start up Crab Company of (Fiji) Limited in Navua in 2011 can therefore be seen as a wise one as he would surely have a market and demand.
The company’s success is evident given the recent launch of its new and improved farming and processing facilities in Navua through assistance from the European Union and the Australian Government.
The facilities are expected to help the business increase production and better serve the market demands for Fijian mud crabs.
Mr Liebregts’ has leased over 80 hectares for his company with a pond area of over nine hectares.
“The pond is from an old salt water prawn farm because we need salt water,” he said.
“We have about 11 ponds plus two small ones. That’s 13 ponds altogether and three mangrove pens.
“The biggest pond is one and half acre and the smallest pond is the nursery pond which over 15,000 square metres.”
Questions for Crab Company of (Fiji) Limited director, Wilco Liebregts :
1. Tell us about your company?
We are the only crab company that’s farming mud crab here in Fiji which we have in our ponds here. At the same time, we have some mangrove pens at the back and that’s really to pilot test on how we are going to work with communities. We want communities to start farming on the mangroves and of course put extra value on the mangroves.
2. How much was invested in the company?
In total, from the company’s side, we have invested over $750,000 so far.
3. Tell us about the quality of your crabs?
For us, farming crab is one thing but to ensure the crabs we sell are always full of meat is a must. We have the technology and the skills to make sure every crab we sell is full of meat. When you go to the market, you don’t know if the crabs you buy are full or empty, claws can be missing and sizes differ. This is because you buy them in one bundle and you can never be sure if one is dead.
But if you go to a resort, a high class resort cannot afford to give a crab with little meat inside because they want the customer to have the best quality. So the chefs are very happy with our products because we deliver that. If they want 20 kilos of crabs, we guarantee they are all full. So 20 kilos will gave them 20 to 30 crabs.
4. Are you considering the export market?
Yes that’s one of the big plans as we are not exporting at the moment. While we are developing the market here, we are actually looking at developing an export market especially to send a few hundred kilos of fresh crabs.
But we have a person from Nauru who comes and buys 20 to 30 kilos. Once he lands, he puts it up for sale and it’s sold within an hour. So we ourselves are not directly exporting, but our crabs are exported but not necessarily by us.
We could start exporting soon as we have some overseas interest from Europe. This is an Italian company interested in getting our crabs and then it comes first to the negotiations to see what requirements to supply that market.
5. Have you identified which markets already?
We have just done with the help of the Secretariat of the Pacific an initial study for the Chinese market. That’s not yet finalised but as soon as we get a draft report, we will comment on that.
We will not be able to export live crabs to Australia because of their quarantine issues. But we are looking at New Zealand and the Biosecurity Authority of Fiji has already put in a request in New Zealand. If we can export live mud crabs, that will be an ideal market because we have buyers there.
The biggest seafood importer in New Zealand has come here and he wants our crabs and he has stated that very clearly. He tasted it as we gave him a sample and he saw how we grow them.
6. Where are the crabs supplied from?
No we don’t import anything because when you import things, you have the risks of diseases. What we do is we breed our own crabs in the hatchery that we have at the University of the South Pacific.
7. What is so unique about the Fijian mud crab?
The Fijian crab or the crab we have here is produced all over Asia as well it’s in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Australia. But over there, very few people can really farm the crabs.
In Asia the water is normally polluted around the coast whereas here, we have a very pristine ecosystem so our crabs are fresh, tasty and grows in a very stress free environment. So the taste is better and produced under the highest environmental conditions and our crabs are actually better than these other ones that have been brought from the wild.
8. Whom do you supply to in the local market?
Our most regular customers in the west are Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa, Fiji Beach Resort and Spa Managed by Hilton and Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort.
Then we have the Pearl of the South Pacific Resort, Baka Blue which is a small café that wants our big crabs because they have a tasty recipe for it. We also have Castaway Island, Mana Island, Holiday Inn Suva, Wakaya Island, Laucala Island, First Landing and there’s several more that are regular customers but are not necessarily weekly.
9. What can you say about supply at the moment?
Our supply is quite low at the moment and we are maintaining the customers with what they need. We are not aggressively pushing our products because we don’t have enough in the pond. In March (this month) it will pick up again big time. In April, we should be in full production again and we should be able to supply 300 to 400 kilos per week.
10. What are some of the challenges you are facing?
When you run a farm like this, the weather is the least of your problems – the technologies have to work finely in tune. We have had both our big water pumps break down and suddenly you find you can’t refresh the water quickly enough and that is when the crabs start dying. And then we have several cases of theft over here.