8.2 Marketing your freshwater prawns fresh or frozen

Prawns can be sold fresh (chilled) if they are going to be consumed within 5 (preferably 3) days. The way to ensure that your chilled prawns are of the best quality has been explained earlier in this manual.

Prawns which are not expected to be sold within 3 days should immediately be frozen. Freezing should take place when they are fresh, not after they have been on ice for several days. Frozen tails have a longer shelf life than whole prawns. Whole frozen fresh water prawns will turn ‘mushy’ if they are frozen and held above -20°C, or if they are thawed and refrozen. It is recommended that prawns to be stored for long periods be held at -30 to -35°C. Tails which are frozen in ice blocks may be stored for over a year and still be very satisfactory, although a maximum of six months is recommended. Glazing or vac uum packing significantly prolongs the useful life of frozen prawns. While vacuum packing requires elaborate processing facilities, not available to small farms, glazing is quite sim ple: a very thin mixture of syrup and water prevents oxidation. If you are marketing frozen prawns, whether they are sold whole or as tails, the ideal is to sell them within a three month period. This can be achieved, if your farm is geared properly to your market (when and where will the product be required, and in what quantity). Good record keeping will help you to develop an efficient farm management system, based on past experience. If you are selling prawns to restaurants you may find it useful to provide them with advice on how to ensure that they are consumed at their best quality (Table 20).

A high quality image can be established if you begin by selling at high prices to expensive and well-respected restaurants. These tend to demand high quality, which can help you to develop good products. Selling prawns to high-quality restaurants requires more effort for a new farm but it will pay off in the long term. Going for this market and establishing your quality image first enables you to obtain higher price levels when you start selling larger quantities of prawns.