YIELD AND PROXIMATE COMPOSITION OF FARM – RAISED AFRICAN FRESHWATER CATFISH (Clarias gariepinus) FILLET

Abstract

The study examined the yield of skinned fillets and the proximate composition of African catfish (Clarias
gariepinus) with the view of developing a sustainable turnkey processing method for farmed catfish fillet. Twenty
six (26) freshly prepared live catfish weighing 25kg were harvested and transported to NIOMR. The
morphological characterization of the fish was done before processing. The processing of the fish was done
manually. The proximate analysis of the skinned fillet was carried out. The proximate composition of catfish fillet
indicated high percent moisture, high protein, and low-fat product. The yield of the skinned fillet was 34% of the
whole catfish, indicating 66% by-products, of which 61.8% can be converted to fishmeal and 4.2% to mince. The
gut and skin made up 10.4% while the slime and drip loss made up 3.2% and 4.2% of the whole catfish
respectively. Raw catfish, at the purchase price of ₦8,750.00 (US 58.33 dollars) and only 34% of fillet as the
primary product, the cost of the skinless fillet without any fixed or variable costs is ₦25,735.29 (US 171.57
dollars), indicating an increase of 194.12% in the cost price of the whole fish. Development of a business plan
and simple financial analysis for catfish fillet processing is encouraged.