Taiwanese Milkfish Guide

The chart below shows the SWOT analysis for the Taiwanese milkfish market including its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

•Current Challenges

The weather in Taiwan was very cold for three weeks in January 2021 which caused a tremendous amount of milkfish to die from cold frost. This led to a serious shortage in the milkfish supply.

Since milkfish does not have its own HS code, it's hard to determine the trade flow. 

•Supply Chain

Farmer -> Middlemen (Distributor) -> Processor (either Whole-round/Fillet) -> Trading company

1. Most of the processors buy from fish farms through middlemen, so the role of middlemen is really important. Suppliers farm milkfish /barramundi/tilapia in the same pond. Milkfish accounts for 70-80% among the three fish species.

2. There are less than 10 processors in Taiwan that only process the whole-round fish, and 20-30 processors for fillet. Also, there are unregistered users that are not counted. 

•Types of Processors

There are two types of processors: Whole-round product and fillet. Usually, processors specialize in either one because the facility and techniques are different. Whole round fish is more popular for export, and the domestic market prefers fillet.

•Supply Network

Coop is not a necessary process since the fishery industry is usually run by a family (very conservative) and only accepts Taiwanese currency to avoid exchange rate risk.

Saudi Arabia, the USA, and UAE are the top importing countries, and the whole product is preferred over the fillet.

•Whole

1. USA: Consumers prefer bigger sizes. The USA is the preferred destination country for exporters because of the price. 

2. Saudi Arabia: Consumers prefer smaller fish of around 400-600 mg, and the majority of suppliers are immigrants from the Philippines and Indonesia. From October 2020 to January 2021 foreign imports were not approved but by January 2021, approval restarted.

•Fillet 

1. USA and Canada buy Taiwanese milkfish fillets, but most of it usually goes to Chinese supermarkets. The total export amount is very small. 

•Seasonality

The peak season is from September to November, but milkfish is basically available all year round in Taiwan. 

•Main Producing Regions

Milkfish is usually caught in the West Coast region of Taiwan. 

In general, the processors pass the fish to the trading company (who speak English and have experience managing the overseas market), but certain processors export by themselves, and they typically hire someone who speaks English. 

When the orders come in, the processors check the stock, size, weight and ask middlemen to buy from the farm if more milkfish is needed. 

For the domestic market, the fish goes to the market directly (does not necessarily goes into processing), but fillet products are processed.

Sometimes middlemen buy fish from multiple farmers to deliver the fish to processors. 

1. Saudi Arabia: The government requires a different type of importing license and health certificate from the exporting country.

2. US and Canada: Health certificates by the government inspection office. 

•Quality Issues

There are not many quality issues and damaged appearance is not a common issue. It is hard to check all the quality-related issues with just a site visit since every batch is different and it's not feasible to check every single batch. 

•Checking Process

1. Frozen fish is passed out on the big table for sorting -> 2. Packing by the appearance of the fish before being sliced to fillet (if selected to be filleted)-> 3. Washing -> 4. Final check of quality -> 5. Inspection (done in-house)

The Philippines is the main competing country with Taiwan in the milkfish market. Filipino milkfish is perceived to have better quality but higher prices.