Description

The fish industry in Nigeria can be categorized into two namely; those who fish on the high sea and those who grow fish inland. There is high demand for fish in Nigeria. The estimated annual national demand for fish in Nigeria is 2.3 million tones out of which market research evidence shows that one in every 500 of this total demand represents the demand estimate { i.e. 4,200} for smoked fish.

As a result of increasing fish production activities, the downstream industry such as fish smoking is also fast developing to take the advantage of readily available raw material by adding value to the fresh fish through smoking. The supply of smoked is met by both traditional and modern smokers.
Another factor is the increasing demand for smoked fish in domestic market and international market.

The basic unit operations involve in the production of smoked catfish from catfish is highlighted below
Cleaning

The fishes are bled, gutted and gilled to remove the agent of deterioration by using clean knife.

Brining

The cleaned fish are soaked in salt solution (30% salt)

Smoking

The heating chamber is filled with charcoal and charge by fire. The cleaned or treated fish is loaded into trays and feed into the kiln. Drying is considered adequate when the moisture content has been reduced to about 25%.

Packaging

The smoked fish is package neatly in transparent cellophane nylon ready for sales.