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Processing sea cucumbers into beche-de-mer
A manual for Pacific Island fishers

Text: Steven W. Purcell. Illustrations: Jipé Le-Bars


This manual is designed for sea cucumber fishers in Pacific Islands. The species depicted in this manual are the ones commonly fished in Pacific Islands.

’Processing’ is used in this manual to mean all of the steps to transform the fresh sea cucumbers into the dried form, which is called ‘beche-de-mer’. Processing includes cutting, salting, cooking, smoking and drying the sea cucumbers.

The price given to fishers for dried sea cucumbers depends on the species they are selling, how big the individuals are and how well they have been processed. This is because Asian consumers want to buy products that look nice and have an attractive appearance and taste when cooked. So, prices in Asian markets are high for the well processed sea cucumbers and much lower for ones poorly processed.

Many fishers are not aware of the best methods for processing sea cucumbers into beche-de-mer. As a result, they may get low prices from buyers.

There are many different ways that sea cucumbers can be processed to obtain a good quality. This manual provides best practice methods that can be applied by fishers using resources in their own villages.

 


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Download the complete English version:

Processing sea cucumbers into beche-de-mer:
A manual for Pacific Island fishers

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Download the complete Fijian version:

Na vakarautaki ni sasalu ni waitui me ivoli:
Na ivola dusidusi me ra vakayagataka na dauqoli ena Pasifika

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Download the complete Kiribati version:

Aron karaoan ao kamauan te kereboki:
Te boki ibukin buokaia taan akawa n te Betebeke

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Download the complete Tongan version:

Ko hono teuteu’I ‘o e mokohunu:
Ko e tohi tokoni ma’a’e kau toutai e ngaahi ‘otumotu ‘o e Pasifiki

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Download the complete French version:

La transformation des holothuries en bêches-de-mer:
Manuel à l'usage des pêcheurs océaniens

pdf_VerySmall (pdf: 11 MB)



Manual produced by the Southern Cross University and the Pacific Community with financial support from
the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

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© 2014 Southern Cross University (SCU) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)
Some rights reserved. Rights and permission:
This publication is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

 

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