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Processing facility aims to help Ohio fish farmers flourish
Article by: Kyle Sharp, Ohio's County Journel
If you are ever in the mood for a length conversation, just travel to mineral city in the Tuscarawas county, walk into blue ribbon farm fish ask the folks inside about the potential for fish farming in Ohio. Then get comfortable, you’ll be there awhile.
Blue ribbon farm fish is a newly opened fish processing facility that celebrated its grand opening on Oct. 11 with pond harvesting and fish processing demonstrations. Manager Marty Domer and his assistant managers Rich and Chuck Georgeone expected several hundred people to show up. The event drew more than 1,200 interested and curious guests.
One visitor Domer was especially pleased and surprised to see was Greg Hargett, director of policy and marketing for the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
“Before he left he said he wanted to setup a meeting with the director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture,” domer said. “That’s the first time in 18 years we’ve gotten any offer of help for fish farming from the government.”
For Domer, the offer is a long time coming, because he sees fish farming as an industry with endless potential in the Buckeye State.
“If the government would promote and help finance this industry, within four or five years tit could probable be a $4 billon industry,” he said. “It’s disappointing how many people have failed to realize the potential for so long.”
As an example, Domer cited the tobacco settlement funds that are supposed to help farmers find alternative enterprises to tobacco production. Of all the states that receive those funds, Ohio is the only one that has never invested any money in promoting and building an aquaculture industry, he said.
Domer also doesn’t have many kind things to say about the work Ohio State University has done to help fish farming get established in the state, although he hopes that will eventually change.
Why is domer so excited about the potential of fish farming in Ohio? For one, the state has the ideal climate for commercial fish production, he said. More southern climates are too hot and more northern climates too cold, sending fish into dormancy earlier. With Ohio’s more temperate climate, fish remain active, eating and growing, for a longer period of time each year.
“Fish can be farm-raised to a good market size in 18 months in Ohio, where it might take the same fish four or five years in the wild,” Domer said. If you’re going to grow quality fish that demand a premium, there are limiting factors, and we’re lucky in Ohio because we have the ideal climate for growing fish commercially.”
Demand for fresh fish in Ohio, the United States and even world wide far outpaces supply. Fish are the United States’ biggest import, next to oil, he said. In Ohio, only 2% of the fish consumed are actually produced in the state. And with traditional commercial fishing catches continuing to decline, the need for additional farm-raised fish is only going to increase.
“With corn, hogs or any other traditional farm commodity, when the price goes up, farmers will eventually produce enough to flood the market and send prices lower again,” Domer said. “You can’t do that right now with aquaculture. We need 40 million pounds of yellow perch just to replace what has been lost in Lake Erie alone.”
Fresh farm-raised fish like yellow perch and bluegill can’t be found in groceries in Ohio because the supply isn’t currently available to keep them stocked, Rich Georgeone said. For example, Buehler’s Fresh Foods has 13 stores in Ohio and they would need the live weight equivalent of 1.2 million pounds of fish each year for Blue Ribbon to do business with them. Farm-raised fish usually weigh about 3 pounds each.
Once ponds are established and stocked, fish are not hard to raise, only needing fed twice a day. This enables people to raise fish as a full-time occupation or as a way to make a supplemental income. With a fish pond, farmers can gross an average of $14,000 per acre, Domer said.
“You don’t have to chase them, and there’s no manure to shovel,” he said. “You have to train the fish to accept a commercial diet, called feed training.”
A growing aquaculture industry also could mean more jobs for the state, especially I Appalachia, Rich said. In addition to more producers, other jobs could eventually be available in feed producing and processing, transportation, fish processing, marketing and more.
Currently, there are about 200 licensed fish farms in Ohio. The industry generates about $11 million to $12 million annually, Domer said. The state is No. 1 in yellow perch and hybrid bluegill production, No. 4 in largemouth bass, and No. 6 in hybrid striped bass.
‘Farmers built the aquaculture industry in Ohio with no help from state or federal funding,” Domer said. “It speaks loudly for the farmers in Ohio, the climate and wah Ohio has to offer.”
Domer has been raising fish in Tuscarawas County since 1984 when, at the age of 24, he convinced Farm Credit (at the time known as PCA) to lend him $2,000 to build his first ponds for himself and others ever since. He also raises fingerlings for stocking ponds. Currently, he supplies fingerlings for farms in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Through his Domers Fish Hatchery, he can pretty much help someone with every aspect of getting started in fish farming. He does site evaluation, pond construction, hatches fish eggs, raised fingerlings for stocking, net harvesting of ponds, marketing and now processing through Blue Ribbon Farm Fish.
“I have access to the whole state and can track everything from the egg to the dinner plate from right here, and nobody else, including universities, can do that,” Domer said.
The processing facility, which was funded through several investors, opens up a whole new marketing window for Ohio Fish Farmers. Now farmers can market filets and other processed items, instead of just whole fish. For now the facility is happy to process several thousands pounds of fish per week, but eventually they hope to move to 2 to 3 tons weekly.
The facility operates with part-time labor, until becoming more established. They process fish for anywhere from $1 to $1.50 per fish, depending on the type of fish, the volume, desired processing and packaging. Blue Ribbon specializes in yellow perch, hybrid bluegill, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, channel catfish and shrimp.
All members of the Fish Farmers of Ohio Association are eligible to bring their fish to the facility for processing. Domer was instrumental in starting the association so farmers could save money by purchasing supplies and equipment in bulk, plus pool production numbers for research purposes. Fish are usually delivered to the facility on Wednesday or Thursday. All processing, for now, is done in one day. Product is either sold fresh within four days of flash frozen in 20 minutes, after which it can be stored for up to two years.
Blue Ribbon can market the fish, or Fish Farmers of Ohio members can choose to market it themselves to make extra money, if they’d like. Blue Ribbon also operates a retail store from the facility that is open Wednesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“Walk-in-business is pretty good on Fridays and Saturday,” Rich said. “It will take a while to build a customer base.”
With the new interest from Ohio Department of Agriculture, Domer sees a bright future ahead for fish farming in Ohio.
“My biggest motivation in promoting this is I know what aquaculture has done for me and my family, and this could have kept a lot of farms in the family and from getting broken up into 5-acre lots,” Domer said. “Aquaculture really is the last opportunity to breathe life back into the small family farm.”
