Nile Perch - Food

Food

Nile perch bought at the beach by women is usually cut into large pieces and smoke-dried for sale in distant places. Those bought by company buyers - usually company drivers - are placed on ice in an insulated company van or collection boat. After one to three days the van or boat will take the fish to a processing plant where the fish is filleted and the fillets are exported either fresh by air or frozen by boat. Local people around Lake Victoria prefer to eat tilapia, rather then Nile perch, but in West Africa and also in Sudan and Egypt it is highly appreciated. In the 1990s the value of Nile perch exports from Lake Victoria reached almost 300 million US$ per year.

The yield of fillets from a whole ungutted fish is about 30 percent. The remainder is head, skin, guts, bones and fins plus meat attached to the filleting frame. The frames used to be smoke-dried for local consumption, while heads and skins were used as fuel under frying pans to collect oil from the guts. Nowadays the companies process the filleting waste to fish meal. However, the swim bladder is dried and sold to traders for export to south-east Asia where they are used as food.

Nile perch meat has a high content of omega-3 fatty acids.