Video credit: Ahmed Zaki (Egypt)
Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website and video channel)
This video was filmed in one of African catfish hatcheries in the Netherlands where the fingerlings of African catch, (Clarias gariepinus) are produced. According to the scattered advertisements, the average size of produced fingerlings is of bout 8-10 g when sold to catfish farms within the Netherlands while much smaller and younger fingerlings of about 0.5 grams are produced when the target is African farms, especially in Nigeria; the largest producer of North African catfish. The Dutch hatcheries claim their use of specially designed transport boxes, which allow shipping to destinations 24 hours away.
The selective breeding programs carried out on African catfish in the Netherlands have justified the reproduction of the species in Dutch hatcheries to be shipped and sold in Africa. The additional cost related to air shipping seems covered by the premium prices of these fingerlings which are promoted as superior fish in regard to key productive traits such as growth, survival and dressing percentage.
