60 Show Review
Dr Kabir Chowdhury, Jefo Nutrition (right) with Fatima Ferdous and Sujit Krishna Das, Infofish (left).
Making waves in Vietnam is Rynan Technologies with totally digital HDPE shrimp ponds with floating roofs and unique tracking barcodes. Dr My T Nguyen showed the integration with AI technology to monitor water quality parameters, shrimp growth, size and health and identify diseases, as well as evaluate the level of Vibrio bacteria in the pond. All data is uploaded onto the application, TraceMe. Hardware devices which are monitored via several IoT systems cover a large range, including a smart feeder, water quality sensors (salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, water levels and alkalinity) and a water circulator. Additional features are a smart ultrasound algae controller and smart LED lighting systems since shrimp grow 15% faster under blue and green LEDs. Rynan also extends its technology to post-harvest processing and valueadding to sales via vending machines and ecommerce.
Chuck Anderson from Certified Quality introduced an interesting innovation using Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) Electrical currents that are passed through the product providing a cellular quality view. This measures seafood quality with non-invasive body composition. It identifies water soaking and quality. He said that the benefits of soaking fresh shrimp prior to peeling are minimal after 4 to 8 hours, whereas water pickup and yield continue to increase for 20 to 24 hours. This innovation is an effective method for identifying soaked shrimp and the approximate water pickup.
Advancing feeds and nutrition
Since February 2022, with the Russia-Ukraine war, feed ingredient prices have escalated; wheat prices have increased by 39% and corn prices by 16%. However, energy costs have increased by 25%. These put pressure on aquafeed producers, said Dr Kabir Chowdhury, Jefo Nutrition. For a typical shrimp feed formulation, the cost increase is 53%. As he explored the use of several local and new raw materials, Chowdhury stressed how critical it is to move to precision nutrition with digestible nutrients. To increase feed efficacy, enzymes are highly effective biological catalysts, capable of accelerating chemical reactions.
Singapore-based AquaEasy now supports 3,200 ponds in Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia said François Vervial. It has AI-based biomass prediction using feed company historical data. It also predicts growth trends to identify future problems when the growth deviates from a standard growth curve. In 2019, Spanish company Marine Instruments entered the aquaculture sector with a smart feeding system with passive acoustics. Successfully installed in several shrimp farms in Ecuador, the sensors are an adaptation of their tuna sonar technology. For shrimp farming, it has been able to remove other noises in the pond. Jorge Pérez Bouzada said that output from farms in Ecuador and Mexico showed weekly average growth at +25%, FCR at -20%, survival 65-85% and there was an increased number of harvests. Intangible outputs are from shrimp behaviour and health status.
Blockchain technology in seafood
Blockchain technology is data bundled from farm, harvest, processing, exporting, importing, and distribution to retail. It builds trust, and transfers value and ownership over the production chain. There is a lot of AI in aquaculture and blockchain is used a lot in seafood traceability. Eric Enno Tamm, Thisfish, Canada, says to ensure traceability in the shrimp value chain using AI and blockchain is important but there has been little application of AI in seafood processing and supply chain due to limited data. Alistair Smart, SmartAqua, Australia, discussed the future of seafood logistics and how it needs to go digital. He said, “We cannot achieve whole chain traceability if we cannot identify and verify the legality of goods. Without this, we cannot reward sustainable and responsible production.” This requires tracing the shrimp at each segment in the production chain and Smart discussed a case study with Indonesian black tiger shrimp, farmed and from wild fisheries.
July/August 2022 AQUA Culture Asia Pacific
William Kramer, Philippines (third left) with the team at the Star Feedmills booth.
Feed processing plays a pivotal role in feed quality and Steven Goh, Delst Asia wants to bring feed processing to a new level. However well a feed is formulated, it can easily be destroyed by poor feed processing. “Managing processing and solving problems can be through feed imaging where we observe chemistry changes to starch and protein during cooking. In shrimp feed, imaging has shown areas of concern and linking the many problems on growth performance and diseases observed at the farm level. This begs the question, is the root cause a poorly processed feed?” According to Goh, in the pelleting process, there is the chemical transformation of starch and protein. When starch is uncooked, it affects pellet quality, nutritional value and water stability. Goh showed some feed samples with poor starch gelatinisation and in contrast, examples of improved pellet quality with the inclusion of the DMX-7 compound.
