By David Volk, Special to JTNews
Its not
difficult to get the fish to bite at this large pond in
Zichron Yaakov, Israel, a half hour outside of Haifa. All a
kibbutz worker has to do is step up to the edge and the
waters churn with brilliant flashes of color as hundreds of
the aquatic animals surface, all jockeying for attention.
Today, the fish are goldfish orange and white, banana
yellow, orange and black as well as yellow with black
specks, but they could easily be light blue, green and
bright red tomorrow and theyd still be clamoring to catch
the kibbutz workers eye.
The kibbutznik
isnt trying to catch them, though. Instead, hes busy
trying to feed the pondful of koi (colorful carp that
originally come from Japan) as they demonstrate the social
behavior that has made them popular among hobbyists all over
the world.
Theres no
denying koi keepers love the decoratively colored carp, but
most are also flattered by the attention they receive from
the fish. All hobbyists have to do is walk up to the edge of
the ponds and water features theyve built in their gardens
and the fish will eagerly swim up to meet them. The owners
know their pets are just hoping for a handout, but theyre
happy to oblige, even if they just fed them an hour or two
before. The animals are eating machines and some in the
industry affectionately call them pigs with fins because of
their appetite.
What many
hobbyists and non-hobbyists alike in the U.S. may not know
is that many of these Japanese fish may soon be coming from
Israelif Mag Noy Ltd. and a network of nine kibbutzim that
raise them have their way.
That is, now that
the company has found a way to overcome a stumbling block
that not only thwarted its first attempt to enter the
market, it also threatened the well-being of the entire
industry in Israel.
In order to
understand how the industry came back from the edge,
however, it helps to know more about the hobby first.
If you havent
heard about koi, youre not alone. Many Americans and
Israelis who arent involved in the rapidly growing hobby
arent aware of them, either. That doesnt mean youve never
seen them if youve ever been to the Japanese Tea Garden
in the Washington Park Arboretum or in a garden and seen a
pond or water feature filled with large, colorful fish,
youve been staring right at them.
The hobby got its
start in Japan more than a century ago, when farmers went
from raising carp for food to breeding them for their color.
The diversion eventually spread throughout Europe and
crossed the oceans to America, gaining a serious foothold
over the last decade.
In fact, many
industry experts say the sudden spike in Americans interest
in the hobby is part of a larger nesting instinct that
became apparent after the attacks on the Pentagon and the
World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Instead of taking
their cash and hitting the road, many people throughout the
country have opted to spend their free time and
discretionary income making their houses more attractive,
according to Robbie Soofer, general manager of Alpine Corp.,
a Los Angeles-based company that makes pumps for koi ponds.
If you have a
little bit of money and you dont want to take a vacation,
the place you want to spend it is your home. The backyard is
something that is very, very huge and its where many
people are putting their ponds, Soofer says.
Israel got into
the act the same way Japan did, only more recently,
according to Ofer Carmeli, a product manager for Agrexco,
the Israeli company that exports koi and other agricultural
products. A number of kibbutzim throughout the country had
been farm-raising carp for food when a handful of the
agricultural collectives decided to breed the colorful fish
on the same industrial scale in 1981.
The Maagan
Michael Ornamental Fish Farm is a good example. The facility
may not be huge, but it includes a packing house, 20 cement
ponds that hold 800,000 gallons of water and up to 25 tons
of fish, plus three large mud ponds where hatchlings mature.
The packing house may be a drab, industrial grey facility,
but the fish provide the perfect contrast, with colors so
vivid they seem to have come out of the pages of glossy
magazines.
While small,
family-owned operations in Japan generally focus on
expensive, show quality fish, Israel specializes in
providing quality fish at a good price, according to Uzia
Linder, Magaan Michael spokesman. Israels smaller,
less-expensive koi have expanded the market by making the
fish more affordable.
The mix of low
cost and high quality was such a winner that Mag Noy was
able to break into markets in France, England and throughout
Europe. The cooperative was even expanding into the U.S.
until a fateful day in May 1998 when company scientist Mordi
Haimi came to work and saw dead fish floating on the waters
surface.
It started in
one pond and started spreading. Fish [were] dying. A lot had
clinical signs: hanging on top of the water, gill rot, skin
hanging off, Haimi recalls.
It took
scientists five months to determine that koi herpes virus
was the culprit, Haimi said. The cooperative had unknowingly
purchased equipment contaminated with the virus from a koi
farm owned by an Israeli expat who went bankrupt when a
number of fish died at his facility in England in October
1997.
After debating
the wisdom of closing the entire koi industry and starting
from scratch, the company decided to expose young koi to the
disease to build up their resistance to the virus. The
approach is essentially the same as putting a child in a
room with a child that has measles, except that the process
occurs under water.
Young koi are put
into a concrete pond with a fish that has KHV, then allowed
to recover in 95-degree water for 21 days. The temperature
is important because its too high for the virus to remain
active, Haimi says. The fish get a second dose in fall to
make sure they are fully resistant.
The approach has
given Mag Noy an edge over its competitors because it now
claims to be the only company in the world producing KHV-resistant
fish at a time when suppliers in other parts of the world
are experiencing outbreaks, Carmeli says.
The virus is
spreading all over the world and theres nothing you can do
to stop it. You cant fight it, but you can see how you can
live with it, Carmeli says. This is the basic thing we
argue about. You can try to avoid it, but everywhere you
have koi breeders today, you have KHV.
Now that Mag Noy
has received renewed acceptance in Europe, it has turned its
focus back on the U.S., where it currently claims less than
half a percent of the market. Rather than plunging back in,
the cooperative has decided to focus on publicizing its
product through advertising in trade journals, appearing at
trade shows and distributing information. Haimi has even
been dispatched to American koi club meetings to discuss the
companys new and improved product.
We think the
first stage is to get the word out and explain why Mag Noy
is unique, Carmeli said, adding, We believe after the
first penetration [in the U.S. market], people will realize
that the product is a good one and that the demand will
start to grow from that moment on.
Carmeli admits
Mag Noy may face a big stumbling block in getting into the
U.S., but its one that any company would love to have.
One of our
problems is that we [already] sell all our fish, he says.
Mag Noy isnt discouraged, though. This is a turning point.
We can produce but I want to go slowly with the U.S.
Six years may
have passed since the last time Magnoy tried to break into
the U.S. market, but one thing that hasnt changed is the
companys attitude. As Carmeli puts it, We will not
compromise on quality.