SDM Case Report: Chicoa Fish Farm, Mozambique

Chicoa Fish Farm (CFF) is a vertically integrated company that breeds, grows, sells and exports tilapia fish. CFF could be an important entry-point to develop the aquaculture sector in Mozambique and surrounding countries, due to their expertise and state-of-the-art production/breeding site. While investments beyond CFF are required, they provide a strong foundation to build on and expand from.

CFF is currently expanding their business with an outgrower model (projected to include 450 smallholder farmers by 2025) aiming to create employment opportunities and sustainable development in the region. They will provide these outgrowers with services like loans, inputs and training, to help them start up their own fish farms. Different cage setups have been explored for this, looking for a balance between manageability and achieving economies of scale, and trying to optimize the value captured by the SDM.

To make this SDM successful, there are certain barriers that have to be overcome, like increasing organizational capacity to allow for a higher training throughput rate, and implementing a farmer organization/financing infrastructure.

The analysis shows that in an optimized scenario, the SDM could generate a positive cumulative EBITDA after 4 years, and farmers could be earning well above living income.

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