Kilic Turkey’s expertise in trout production is put to good use at Kilic Albania Aquaculture

Producing trout in Albania for export to the EU

Kilic’s Albanian subsidiary draws on the knowledge, training, and experience of the parent company in Turkey to farm rainbow trout in a dam lake.

Freshwater fish production in Albania comprises both capture fisheries from lakes and rivers as well as fish farmed in earthen ponds, raceways, and dam lakes. While there is significant overlap between the species from capture and those from aquaculture, one variety stands apart. This is rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) which is farmed in raceways and more recently also in cages in dam lakes.

Probably the biggest producer of rainbow trout in Albania is the company Kilic Albania Aquaculture which was established in 2015. Kilic, a Turkish company, is a giant in the Turkish fish farming industry producing seabass, seabream, trout, meagre, and tuna. The company is fully integrated with hatcheries, nurseries, on-growing, processing, packaging, and distribution. It also manufactures its own feed. Kilic Albania Aquaculture is a fully owned subsidiary of the Turkish company and Saimir Todi, its chief of financial and administrative affairs, an Albanian, speaks fluent Turkish (and English).

Over a million trout eggs purchased each month

The company has a hatchery where the larvae are produced. The trout eggs are imported from Poland, Denmark, Italy, or from Turkey and are placed in

From left, one of the divers at Kilic Trout; Fadil Gjuta, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Saimir Todi, Kilic Trout; Caner Tasel, Kilic Trout; Enton Spaho, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

incubators in the hatchery. Each month we need to buy 1 to 1.5m eggs, says Mr Todi to be able to harvest the quantities of marketsized fish that we need through the year. This number also takes into account a mortality rate of about 20 through the production cycle. The main suppliers are Poland and Turkey but irrespective of where the eggs come from, they are certified disease free and all female. If sourced in Turkey the eggs are flown from Adana to Tirana via Istanbul and are then transported by truck to the hatchery in Shkodra. Polystyrene boxes in which the temperature is kept at a constant level of about 5 degrees during the journey are used to store the eggs. Once they arrive at the hatchery they are removed from the boxes and adapted to the temperature of the water in the hatchery, which is some 7 or 8 degrees. Moving directly from one to the other without adaptation would give the eggs an unnecessary shock. The hatchery is supplied with water from a spring located 100 m away and which delivers a steady volume of water at a constant 12-13 degrees throughout the year. The combination of water from a spring, the use of disease-free eggs, and the lack of other trout farms in the area means that the threat of disease is fairly remote. The water temperature is a fraction higher than the 10-12 degrees that is considered the ideal temperature for a hatchery but is perfectly adequate for the purpose.

Once adapted the eggs are placed in the incubators where they typically hatch after a week. However, the larvae continue in the incubators for another week before they are moved to large rectangular tanks where they spend the next one month before being transferred to the nursery section. The entire production process is carefully planned so that each stage of the production (incubator, larval tanks, post-larval tanks, nursery, grow-out) is completed in time for the next batch, a cycle which continues all year long, says Ali Gungorer, the hatchery manager. Altogether the time taken from the arrival of the eggs to the production of market sized fish of 300-350 g is 7-8 months. In the post-larval tanks the fish grow another month before being moved to the nursery for two months and thence to the cage farm when they weigh about 3 g. Irrespective of the source of the

eggs the quality of the fish is the same. As Mr Todi explains, if a difference was noted then the company would stop buying eggs from that supplier. The company also maintains a few broodstock fish from which is produced a small number of eggs. But we cannot do everything by ourselves, says Mr Todi, and expect to be very good at each activity. We have chosen to specialise in the production of fish rather than eggs. Besides, the eggs from Turkey come from the Kilic trout hatchery in Kahramanmara , where Kilic Turkey has its trout production.

Geography and labour costs favour choice of Albania as site for trout production

The young fish are fed with different starter feeds depending on their size. Most of the feed comes from the Kilic feed production in Turkey, but the starter feeds are bought in Germany from a reputed supplier. Turkish foreign direct investment in Albania was the sixth largest in 2021 according to a paper in the European Journal of Business and Management Research1. For the parent company in Turkey the decision to invest in Albania was influenced partly by the country’s proximity to the EU market and partly by the advantages gained from the lower cost of labour. The value of the investment by the parent company was EUR67m in total. The entire production from the trout farm is exported— the main destination is Poland with some fish also going to Romania. The product is exported fresh and frozen with most of the fresh fish going to Romania, and most of the frozen to Poland. The fish is processed at a facility in Durres with whom the farm has a contract. The fish is transferred to the processing plant where it is cleaned, gutted, and frozen when the order is for frozen fish or packaged in polystyrene boxes on ice when the demand is for the fresh product. For the time being the company has no plans to establish its own processing facility, says Mr Todi, as the system of contract processing works smoothly. But if the production volume increases, then we will consider setting up our own facility, he adds.

The dam lake in which the fish are on-grown is the lowest of three dam lakes in a row and Kilic Albania is the sole producer in that lake. The lake was created in the 60s under the former regime and is reputed to have submerged several villages, the remains of which can be discerned at the bottom of the lake. The grow-out site is located some 14 km from the hatchery and holds 80 cages each with a diameter of 20 m and a depth of 10 m. According to MrTodi, this is the only farm of its kind in Albania; the other trout production facilities grow their fish in raceways or ponds. There is however a major challenge for the sector in Albania and this is the imposition of an 8.4 levy on the fish when it enters the EU. This obviously makes it very difficult for producers over here to make the margins necessary to invest in the business, Mr Todi states. Another factor that affects production is the fluctuating temperature of the water which can probably be attributed to global warming. There are sudden and sharp increases and decreases in water temperature and Caner Tasel, the farm manager, tries to compensate by keeping the cages full when the water temperature is appropriate and by keeping fewer and fewer fish in the cages in summer, as the water gets hotter. Thus, from winter to summer the volume of fish in the cage falls from 20 tonnes to 10 tonnes. These adjustments are made without interrupting the production cycle, which must be maintained throughout the year as it determines the supply to the clients. When a cage is ready to be harvested it is towed slowly to the landing stage, where the farm’s vessels are docked, and anchored there. The cage is harvested at night when it is a more comfortable temperature for workers and fish alike and because the fish need to arrive early in the morning at the processing factory in Durres which is two and a half hours away by road.

Trout eggs are imported from Turkey, Poland or other countries and transported under strictly controlled conditions to the hatchery near Shkodra. Ali Gungorer, hatchery manager, Kilic Trout

Farming operations are closely monitored in Turkey

The Albanian operation is closely monitored from Turkey. The farm

1 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ ejbmr.2022.7.4.1542