TEULON, Man. – It is a region where old Bombardier ice buggies sit side by side with tractors and combines, where people have always made a living from both fishing and farming.
Now, a group of people from the Interlake, which lies between Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg, want to bring the fishing inland and establish the region as a centre for farming a luxury species of fish.
A couple of major fish farmers have joined with Winnipeg processors and distributors to try to entice more farmers to produce arctic char.
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Robert Freeman met with about 100 farmers at a packed meeting last winter to teach them about the industry.
Freeman started his career as a fish buyer in his native Newfoundland, before moving into aquaculture 15 years ago.
Today, he is part-owner of Glacier Springs Fish Farm, at Gunton, Man., with a group of Saskatchewan investors. Until 1996, the farm was a research lab for the federal fisheries department.
Freeman said the Interlake is ideal for farming fish because of its ground water supply.
“It’s the key reason why I’m in the Interlake to stay,” he said. “Your water source is your life blood.”
The region has deep bedrock artesian aquifers, said Freeman, with yields often upwards from 100 U.S. gallons per minute.
The area also has some of the cheapest electricity in the country, with rates less than three cents per kilowatt-hour.
A fish farm in the Interlake might have a power bill of $40 to $100 per month, while in Prince Edward Island, it would be as high as $19,000 per month, he said.
The Interlake is also close to Winnipeg, home to several processors who compete in Canadian and international markets.
Freeman said from his operation at Gunton, he can get fresh fish to 86 million people within 36 hours at transportation costs of nine cents per kilogram.
Because of the water and low power bills, Freeman predicts fish farming will grow in the region. If local farmers don’t pick up on the advantages, major multinationals will, he said.
Arctic char is becoming the fish of choice for farms because producers can put up to three times as many char as trout in a tank.
“At high densities, they refuse to chew each other up,” Freeman said.
They grow faster at lower temperatures than other salmonid fish.
But the biggest problem in marketing char is lack of supply, he said.
Right now, there’s a 1,000-tonne shortfall in supply of arctic char for western Canadian companies alone, said Freeman.
Right now, the fish is fetching $1.90 to $2.60 per kg at the farm gate, and has been as high as $3.60 per kg, he said.
However, he predicted $1.45 per kg would be a more realistic long-term price, and encouraged potential growers to use the lower price in their budget calculations.
Hilmar Johnson, the provincial government’s agricultural representative for Teulon, said he thinks interest is high in the area.
“As long as the market is there that they say is there, there’s definite potential,” he said.
In some ways, it’s more appealing to get into fish than hogs or other livestock because of opposition to large scale hog barns, he said. But he encouraged farmers to do their homework.
“We’re not saying if you get into the industry, you’re going to get rich quick,” he said.
