Aqua Culture Asia Pacific July/August 2024

Interview: Succession Implementation in

Partial Replacement of Artemia with Dry Feeds

Focus on

MRF

SNAKEHEAD FISH SEABASS PANGASIUS

Quality Sheng Long

We Use Life Long

TILAPIA

SHENG LONG BIO-TECH INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD

Add: Block A5, Duc Hoa 1 Industrial Park, Duc Hoa District, Long An Province

Tel: (84-272) 3761358 - 3779741 Fax: (84-272) 3761359

Email: thanglong@shenglongbt.com Website: www.shenglongbt.com

SHENG LONG BIO-TECH (INDIA) PVT LTD

Add: Plot No. A-11/1, Part-A, SIPCOT Industrial Park, Thervoykandigai Village, Gummidipoondi Taluk, Thiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu 601202, India.

Tel: 91-44-6790 1001 Fax: 91-44-6790 1017

Email: info@shenglongindia.com Website: www.shenglongindia.com , a complete range of quality fish feeds are formulated by our experienced aquatic animal nutritionists covers freshwater and marine species.   The quality diets will maximize feed intake and improving feed conversion ratio, promotes performance by supplying a specific amino acid balance to deliver excellent growth and reducing environmental impacts.

The Red Tilapia in Vietnam

From the editor

2 Shrimp prices: Lower for longer

Industry News

3 A renaissance and an inclusive shrimp farming industry

5 Unfounded: Accusations about shrimp farming’s role in widespread, continuous mangrove destruction in India. Commentary by Willem van der Pijl

21-day old red tilapia fry. Page 42

Editor/Publisher

Zuridah Merican, PhD

Tel: +6012 205 3130

Email: zuridah@aquaasiapac.com

Editorial Coordination

Corporate Media Services P L

Tel: +65 6327 8825/6327 8824

Fax: +65 6223 7314

Email: irene@corpmediapl.com Web: www.corpmediapl.com

Design and Layout

Words Worth Media

Management Pte Ltd

Email: sales@wordsworth.com.sg Web: www.wordsworth.com.sg

AQUA Culture Asia Pacific is published bimonthly by

Aqua Research Pte Ltd

3 Pickering Street, #02-36 Nankin Row, Singapore 048660

Web: www.aquaasiapac.com Tel: +65 9151 2420

Printed in Singapore by Times Printers Private Limited 18 Tuas Avenue 5 Singapore 639342

Subscriptions

Subscribe via the website at www.aquaasiapac.com

Subscriptions can begin at any time.

Subscriptions rate/year (6 issues): SGD 70, Email: subscribe@aquaasiapac.com Tel: +65 9151 2420 Fax: +65 6223 7314

Copyright © 2024 Aqua Research Pte Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

Aqua Culture Asia Pacific is a print and digital magazine. View E-magazine & Download PDF of past issues for free www.aquaasiapac.com

Shrimp Aquaculture

8 Four models and one farm

How the commercial application of four farming models is working well for the team at PT Delta Marine farm in Sumbawa. By Zuridah Merican

13 Effects and economics of partial replacement of Artemia with dry feeds in post larvae production

Babu Rathinam, Grace Angel and Victor Suresh showed no negative effects on the hatchery productivity and post larvae quality and yielded 10% savings in feed input costs.

Feed Technology

16 The search for sustainable and nutrient-rich shrimp feed leads to krill

The future of the shrimp aquaculture industry depends on cost efficient and more sustainable feed ingredients.

19 Sustainable aquafeed takes centre stage

A panel at Seafood Expo Global 2024 discusses commitments to responsible feed sourcing

21 Growth of aquaculture requires alternative and sustainable feed ingredients

At the USGC international aquaculture conference post- SEG, Barcelona

Interview

26 Succession Implementation

The route of PT Delta Marine from trading to shrimp farming and passing the baton. By Zuridah Merican

Feed Technology

30 The power of mannan rich fraction to address parasitic disease challenges

It is the production method which determines MOS’ prebiotic activity, immune stimulatory effects, and pathogen-binding capabilities, say Yufan Zhang and Henry Wong

34 Harmonising sustainability with profitable fish and shrimp farming

The Sustainable Seafood Event by Adisseo looks at managing health and feed efficiency for better productivity

Industry Review - Tilapia

40 Saline tilapia in Indonesia

The centre in Karawang is preparing to revitalise shrimp ponds in coastal areas

42 Full steam ahead with tilapia fry throughout Vietnam

Selection for fast-growing broodstock is leading development and fry production

45 A red tilapia cage farming business in the Mekong Delta

How demand vs supply cycles affect small-scale farmers

Demand & Supply Equilibrium

48 Responsible aquaculture supply chains

Traceability, legal compliance and shedding light on strategies to enhance responsible practices within Europe

Marketing

50 Marketing Asian seafood at Seafood Expo Global

55 Company News

Zuridah Merican

Global economists had a tag line when describing US interest rates. It was called ‘higher for longer’ indicating the Federal Reserve was not cutting interest rates anytime soon. The shrimp industry now has a similar tag line for shrimp prices i.e. ‘lower for longer’. Shrimp is a global commodity, and prices are mainly determined by demand and supply with government tariffs and supply chain woes thrown in. A review from various vantage points will give a clearer picture.

US shrimp wholesale prices have fallen below pre-Covid levels and to 20-year lows. During the 2020 lockdown, restaurants were forced to close temporarily, and prices tumbled but when restaurants re-opened in 2021, there was revenge dining increasing prices. Concurrently, incountry inventory was low due to minimal replenishment of shrimp as shipping was curtailed and later traffic jams at Los Angeles Port slowed supply to warehouses. When supply normalised in 2022, prices fell and continues until present day. The ‘cost of living’ crisis has affected the US but when compared to a basket of other proteins (beef, pork

OUR MISSION

We strive to be the beacon for the regional aquaculture industry.

We will be the window to the world for Asia-Pacific aquaculture producers and a door to the market for international suppliers.

We strive to be the forum for the development of self-regulation in the Industry.

Shrimp prices: Lower for longer

and chicken), Rabobank’s average protein index has shown that shrimp is relatively cheaper today than in 2020. Shrimp is touted as a price elastic product i.e. when price decreases, consumption increases so why have we not seen this shrimp consumption increase? Very simply – this is based on wholesale prices which has not cascaded down to retail prices.

Demand comes from the largest markets which are China, the US and the EU+UK. China was the biggest driver with record imports of 987,601 tonnes in 2023 but China’s shrimp imports were down by 4.2% in value and up by 12.4% in volume so there was deflationary pressure. Ecuador led with 72% market share followed by India at 13%. For YTD April 2024, China’s imports reached 290,031 tonnes (-5% Y-o-Y) with 75% coming from Ecuador at lower prices. Will China’s increasing demand continue? This is unlikely due to the continued fall in property prices which poses a huge risk to consumer confidence.

The supply side has been the key disruptor and Ecuador has doubled production over the past 5 years. The Global Seafood Marketing Conference reported that global vannamei shrimp production reached 5.15 million tonnes in 2023. Ecuador led with an estimated 1.45 million tonnes. The industry expects single digit growth due to slower demand and lower prices in 2024. The US antidumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) rates will hurt sales and there is still a big concern with insecurity in the country. India produced an estimated 850,000 tonnes and YTD 1st crop 2024 has shown stocking to be 20% lower with stocking densities unchanged at 20-30PL/m2. Failure rates remain as farmers live with WSSV and EHP but harvest ABW have increased to >20g, thus increasing biomass.

The US Dept of Commerce has published its preliminary rates for AD & CVD. Apart from some specific companies, the general combined

rates are 13.47% for Ecuador; 4.36% for India; 6.3% for Indonesia and 2.84% for Vietnam. This will change the trade landscape for matching the export country to the import country and prompt Ecuador to focus on China, with which it has a FTA, instead of the US.

The Suez Canal, a major waterway for ships has seen traffic fall 80% due to Houthi rebel attacks, diverting ships around the Cape of Good Hope requiring 15 extra shipping days. Together with reduced traffic along the Panama Canal, this has increased container shipping prices 5-fold to USD8,000 per 40-foot container for China exporting to EU. Although less than during the Covid period, it does mean fewer available containers and ships due to longer shipping routes. This will increase prices along the supply chain such that high market prices will not translate to high farmgate prices.

So, what does the crystal ball show for 2024? Will the demand vs. supply equilibrium change or are low prices the new normal? Demand may improve slightly over 2023, based on growth in US which is highly dependent on passing lower prices to the retail segment, but the AD and CVD rates will be counterintuitive. China’s economy cannot lift demand further. Supply will not contract despite Ecuador’s growth slowing. India’s production will maintain. Hence low prices will remain as domestic demand growth will take time. Today, while better cost of production is expected due to cheaper feed, labour costs are rising. Productivity and efficiency will be the key to our success.

If you have any comments, please email: zuridah@aquaasiapac.com

A renaissance and an inclusive shrimp farming industry

The second Shrimp Aquaculture Conference (SAC), held in June in Bali, was organised by the Young Shrimp Farmers of Indonesia with the acronym PMI (Petambak Muda Indonesia). The theme was “Aquaculture Renaissance”. This 2024 edition captured the interests of stakeholders outside of Indonesia with 40% international participants, notably from Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. In his opening address, PMI President Rizky Darmawan, CEO Delta Marine group, emphasised, “At PMI, we are first and foremost shrimp farmers. We organise SAC for the good of the industry, to ensure its sustainability. As we take over from our predecessors, we want to create a sustainable industry for the next generation.

“We want more people to see the wonderful world of shrimp and what it can bring to the country’s economy. The industry needs a revival to have more entrants. By renaissance we mean rebirth with inclusivity, using technology, data and science to bring up shrimp aquaculture. I quote in Latin; Veni, Vidi, Vici which means we “came, saw, conquered”. This is through sheer hard work and innovations.”

Shrimp and hatchery owners at SAC commented how farming continues to be challenged by poor biosecurity practices, management, and diseases. Small scale hatcheries use local polychaetes from areas where shrimp farms discharge water. Diseases include Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) in combination with white faeces disease (WFD), and infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV). Currently, an estimated 40% of farms in West Jawa are not operating.

Managing diseases

In disease management, a reactive approach is common. Dr Melony Sellars, Genics, Australia suggested early detection of diseases such as when 1,000 copies of WSSV are present, it is an early warning of not to stock. “Fitness for purpose tests is important for this industry,” said Sellars. Based on the work carried out at Viet Uc, a large hatchery and farming group in Vietnam, Sellars showed how biosecurity planning and improvements can be implemented leading to better profitability. Early detection of pathogens in a farm in Ecuador led to 50% increase in nauplii production and 10-15% increase in production. Maxime Hugonin, MixScience Asia, presented on the development of a blend of short chain and medium chain fatty acids which works to disrupt the infectivity of the polar tubule of EHP. A field trial in Vietnam using the blend as top coating, increased shrimp resistance against EHP and control of EHP in the gut.

Rishita Changede, Teora is working to develop next generation solutions. “With fast spread of pathogens, solutions available for disease management are difficult to sustain. In the case of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), the virus is changing and rapid solutions are needed to block or reduce the viral load. Rishita described the application of nanopeptides, delivered orally to manage pathogens by blocking multiplication.

Farm management

Chiow-Yen Liew, dsm-firmenich approached the dynamics of ponds aging by documenting the whole process in the shrimp ponds: from nutrient built up in ponds and decomposition of organic matter to changes in biodiversity of plankton and fluctuations in water quality. Liew also described the effects of feed containing different levels of crude protein on the pond environment in terms of phosphorus and nitrogen loadings. Kamaru Budianto from Yuki Water Treatment spoke on the climatic effects on water quality, such as changing seawater temperatures. He went on to discuss water disinfection with UV to address different pathogen loads.

Nutrition and feed management

Shrimp farmers are under pressure with low farmgate prices and the added burden of increasing feed prices. Dr Daranee Seguin said options include using alternative ingredients to reduce feed costs, moving from marine meals to cheaper plant-based protein meals such as DDGS and improving overall efficiency with functional feeds. Indonesia is a leader with the use of feed with low crude protein (30%) which other than reducing feed costs, also reduces the impact of feeds on the pond environment.

Dr Albert Tacon presented a holistic approach to shrimp nutrition and health. He said, “In Indonesia, labels on feed bags give no indication of the dietary nutrient levels within the feed. Most feeds have the same proximate composition; feed quality and performance are currently determined by the farmers.” As more plant meals are being used in shrimp feeds, approximately 50%, he cautioned on risks of poor feed intake and FCR with the presence of antinutritional factors and mycotoxins. Use of feed additives with health benefits are common but these are not always a panacea against diseases. Finally, Tacon said, “A weak link is top dressing. The feed miller’s job is to provide the farmer with good feed and that of the farmer is to grow the shrimp.”

Business Talk was led by Ronnie Tan, Consultant, US Grains Council (left) with panellists, from second left, ChingLing Tanco, Managing Director of Mida Trade Ventures, Aris Utama,Head of Sales & Marketing, Bumi Menara Internusa and Van Vu, co-founder and CEO, Otanics Technology, JSC, Vietnam.

Since feed is a significant cost component in the farming process, efficient feed management practices are crucial for all farms. At AQ1, Keone Dodd has led research on feed management using acoustic systems. She presented real time feeding data from AQ1, derived from some case studies, such as the transition from feeding with blowers to sensor-based feeding. Dodd said that farmers must find the best way to deliver the feed to shrimp in the most effective way, minimising feed wastes while maximising shrimp growth.

Marketing

The low shrimp prices and the anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) imposed on imports of frozen shrimp to the US, affect all players. While presenting on navigating current markets and beyond, Lie Ce Yung, PT Central Pertiwi, said that the demand for certified products is increasing; Japan is asking for BAP and ASC certifications, while demanding small size shrimp. Indonesia exported 209,065 tonnes in 2023, mainly raw frozen vannamei shrimp. “Some 85% of Indonesia’s shrimp goes to the US. We need to export to the EU and we need our government to help.”

Business talk on marketing Indonesia’s shrimp

A panel moderated by Ronnie Tan, US Grains Council discussed several issues on marketing shrimp. Panellists were Chingling Tanco, Mida Trade Ventures, Philippines; Aris Utama, Bumi Menara Internusa, Indonesia; and Van Vu, Otanics Technology, JSC, Vietnam.

Caleb

Latest trends in the global shrimp market

Tanco noted that although Ecuador and India have increased production and there is an oversupply situation, Indonesia is shielded as farmgate prices remain high. But, being highly dependent on the US market with easy peeled products, the risk is high. Aris commented that consumers’ focus on shrimp welfare has added pressure on the sustainability issue. BMI is part of the new Global Shrimp Council which aims to increase shrimp consumption via nutrition, good taste, easy to cook and better targeted marketing. As prices of large size shrimp remain resilient, Van expects Vietnam to maintain its share in this segment.

Changing consumer demand over the past 5 years

While Tanco said the change has been towards quality and premium products in the retail sector e.g. without phosphate treatment, Aris said that with the US AD and CVD, there is a need to build up domestic and regional demand. On dealing with AD and CVD, Aris suggested to focus on premium products and selling live shrimp locally. China could be a target market.

Elephant in the room

As Ecuador continues to increase production, will any increase in consumption just benefit Ecuador and not Asian producers? Due to logistics and high freight cost, Tanco suggested that Asian producers target the China market and allow Ecuador to focus on the US, which Ecuador benefits due to proximity. But the focus is on flavour and quality. Aris said that China wants HOSO and for Indonesia, the US market is less demanding, and Indonesia can cater to this demand. Tanco added that Asian producers may find it difficult to compete with Ecuador’s extensive culture system producing shrimp of HOSO quality, especially to prevent burst hepatopancreas. An alternative is to do live cooked HOSO.

According to Aris, Indonesia has been aligned for so long with the US market and may find it difficult to compete with Ecuador and India because their offer prices are so much lower. Since Indonesia’s market share has decreased, it is time for Indonesia to think of new approaches.

Who pays for sustainability?

Van said that EU buyers demand sustainability credentials but who should pay for this? “What is happening is that certification bodies assumed this responsibility on behalf of buyers and supermarkets in the US,” commented Tanco. The EU is more serious with more audits. In Vietnam, large companies like Minh Phu help small farmers attain certification.

A panel on aquaculture innovation was led by JALA’s Liris Maduningtyas (right) and comprising (from left), Rubi Haliman, PT. Central Proteina Prima, Indonesia; Michael Phillips, Futurefish, Thailand and Dr Krishna R Salin, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

Rizky Darmawan (standing, third left) with the organising team at PMI.

From left,

Wurth, USGC, Malaysia; Christopher Tan, Mida Trade Ventures, Singapore; Bernand Lim, Hoc Po, Philippines; Constantine Ong, Santeh Feeds, Philippines; Bianca Animas, Philippines; Bettina Lim, Hoc Po, Philippines and June Wu, Wittaya Aqua.

Unfounded: Accusations about shrimp farming’s role in widespread, continuous mangrove destruction in India

Commentary by Willem van der Pijl, Shrimp Insights, released

on July 15 2024

Recent reports have accused India of continuous, widespread mangrove destruction through its expansion of shrimp farming on the country’s east coast. But is this claim a fair one?

Unfounded: Accusations about shrimp farming’s role in widespread, continuous mangrove destruction in India

Commentary by Willem van der Pijl, Shrimp Insights, released on July 15 2024

Recent reports have accused India of continuous, widespread mangrove destruction through its expansion of shrimp farming on the country’s east coast. But is this claim a fair one?

Satellite imagery analysis by Indian space tech start-up GalaxEye Space using its own aquaculture pond database and Clark Labs’ mangrove database (see Image 1) prove these accusations to be unfounded. Their analyses show that from 1999 to 2022, only 0.3% of the total land covered with mangroves was converted into fish and shrimp ponds. What’s more, the total net area covered by mangroves has actually increased by 8%.

Satellite imagery analysis by Indian space tech start-up GalaxEye Space using its own aquaculture pond database and Clark Labs’ mangrove database (Figure 1) prove these accusations to be unfounded. Their analyses show that from 1999 to 2022, only 0.3% of the total ltand covered with mangroves was converted into fish and shrimp ponds. What’s more, the total net area covered by mangroves has actually increased by 8%.

In this commentary, I will debunk the myth that the recent expansion of shrimp farming operations has led to “continuous” and “widespread” mangrove destruction. I will back this up with evidence.

along the coastline and in salt pan lands, wherever feasible. Some funds that the new program draws from were allocated for afforestation efforts to compensate for diverting forests for non-forest use. Successful conservation and afforestation efforts depend greatly on cooperation and the co-management of mangrove habitats with local communities, civil society, and other actors in the coastal ecosystem, such as the shrimp industry.

In this commentary, I will debunk the myth that the recent expansion of shrimp farming operations has led to “continuous” and “widespread” mangrove destruction. I will back this up with evidence.

Figure 1. An illustration of the different sources and steps used in the analysis presented in this commentary

Understanding mangrove conservation in India today

Strengthened conservation efforts by India’s government that started in the early part of the 21st century with a strengthened forest act and the implementation of the Coastal Aquaculture Act, combined with the overall public awareness on the significance of mangrove forests for the country’s ecological health mean that rather than declining, the total area covered by mangroves on the eastern coast has actually increased by 8%. So how did this happen?

India strongly supports the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and has the most significant number of Ramsar sites in South and Southeast Asia. The Indian government has made the protection of wetlands in general, and the protection of mangroves in particular, a priority. India’s finance minister announced two major programs for mangrove plantation and wetlands conservation in the country’s latest annual budget for 2023-24. One initiative, “Building on India’s Success in Afforestation, Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes (MISHTI),” will entirely focus on mangrove plantation

One of the organisations working on mangrove conservation and afforestation is the Swaminathan Foundation. This organisation has been working on this task from 1993 onwards and claims to have restored 2025 ha of mangroves. On the eastern coast, the organisation has been working in Tamil Nadu between 1993-2018 and has restored 900 ha of mangroves. In Andhra Pradesh, it worked on mangrove conservation between 1999-2002 and 2017-2021 and restored 860 ha of mangroves. In Odisha, its activities took place between 1996-2004, and it restored 240 ha of mangroves. Read more about the organization’s work in its report on “Restoring mangroves ecosystems saves the coastline and community”.

Facts on mangroves and shrimp farms in India’s east coast

The majority of India’s shrimp farms and mangroves are concentrated on the east coast. For this reason, GalaxEye Space has limited its analysis to the east coast.

The primary mangrove forests on the east coast are the Sundarbans (West Bengal), the Bhitarkanika Mangroves (Odisha), the Godavari-Krishna Mangroves (Andhra Pradesh), and the Pichavaram Mangroves (Tamil Nadu). Smaller patches are also found in other parts of the east coast’s deltas and river estuaries. Shrimp farming is concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, with significant farming activities also being present (in order of significance) in West Bengal, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu (Figure 2).

It’s

Credit: GalaxEye Space Figure 1. Cost comparison between the different feeding protocols. Credit: GalaxEye Space

Figure 2. Total area covered by mangroves in each state on the East Coast and the growth of the area from 1999-2022. Refer to the blog in Shrimp Insights on “Why Look at 1999 Onwards.”

Credit: GalaxEye Space

Credit: GalaxEye Space

true to say that India’s east-coast shrimp farms and mangroves compete for scarce land along the coastal creek- and riversides. Data on mangroves from Clark Labs and analysis using GalaxEye

Figure 3. An illustration of some of the geographies where mangrove forests expanded between 1999-2022. As 9,550 ha of land was lost during the same period, the gross increase of mangroves was even close to 30,000 ha.

Credit: GalaxEye Space

It’s true to say that India’s east-coast shrimp farms and mangroves compete for scarce land along the coastal creek- and riversides. Data on mangroves from Clark Labs and analysis using GalaxEye Space’s proprietary pond database show that between 1999 and 2022, the land covered by fish and shrimp ponds expanded by 87%, and that the total area covered by mangroves increased by 8% (Figure 3). In 2022, around 385,000 ha on the east coast was covered by fish and shrimp ponds, and around 260,000 ha was covered by mangroves.

While the total area under mangroves increased, also some mangroves were lost. The majority of mangroves during this 23 year period was lost for a variety of reasons: because of climate change, tropical storms, industry expansion, and other agricultural activities to name a few. These reasons, according to GalaxEye Space’s analysis, resulted in a loss of around 8,800 ha of mangrove forests.

Over the same 23-year period, mangrove to fish or shrimp pond conversion was limited to an area of 750 ha. This figure represents just 0.3% of the total land covered by mangroves and only 0.2% of the total fish and shrimp pond area. Placing these figures in context makes claims accusing India’s shrimp industry of continuous and widespread mangrove destruction not only unfair and misrepresentative, but also unfounded.

Let us take a closer look at two of the major states where mangroves and shrimp- farming exist side-byside. Andhra Pradesh, is home to some major rivers: The Godavari, The Krishna, The Pennar, and The Vamsadhara. Most of the region’s mangrove forests are found in the estuaries of these rivers, but they also occur in smaller patches along the coastline.

Despite the rapid expansion of the shrimp industry, and around 450 ha of mangroves that despite forest conservation regulations were converted to fish and shrimp ponds, the area covered by mangroves in Andhra Pradesh grew from 32,047 ha in 1999 to 42,493 ha in 2022, an increase of 33%. This increase is a strong confirmation of conservation and aggressive afforestation efforts of federal and state level authorities.

West Bengal is home to the majority of India’s mangrove, around 192,665 ha of mangroves and a portion of one of the most famous and largest mangrove forests in the world: the Sundarbans. Traditional shrimp farms have been active since the 1980s around the Sundarbans. These are large, multi-hectare ponds where farmers grow shrimp at low densities. The Sundarbans are now well preserved, and no significant destruction of mangroves due to shrimp farming expansion has occurred between 1999 and 2022. This is slightly different in other coastal districts in West Bengal, where more intensive shrimp farming has expanded recently, and, despite local regulations, some mangrove conversion has occurred. The total land covered by mangroves in West Bengal slightly increased from 189,555 ha to 192,665 ha. This, again, illustrates the success of India’s mangrove conservation and afforestation efforts.

Industry coexisting with vital ecosystems

India is one of the world’s largest shrimp producers and is home to some of the world’s most significant mangrove habitats. While the shrimp industry is vital for India because of its economic significance and the number of jobs it creates, mangroves are essential for coastal protection, biodiversity, and carbon sinking. It’s in the interest of the industry and the wider Indian society that the shrimp industry and the country’s mangrove habitats not only coexist but also flourish.

If we take a moment to consider the market challenges the Indian industry faces in the wake of these claims, committing itself to supporting increased mangrove conservation and afforestation projects could significantly enhance its market image and consumer perception. According to Indian legislation, companies must spend a 3% of their three-year trailing average net profit on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities; mangrove conservation projects would be a good place to start for some of the country’s shrimp exporters in light of this situation.

While some deforestation has indeed happened over the past 25 years, contrary to common belief the numbers show that the scale of conversion does not justify the accusations being put on the Indian shrimp industry: as proved in this analysis, the industry’s impact has been quite limited. In my view, these claims are, therefore, unfounded, unfair and unjust. Even more, while the shrimp industry expanded rapidly during this period, the land covered by mangroves increased significantly, by more than 20,000 ha.

It’s essential to spread this message within the industry, to retailers, and to consumers worldwide: accusations like this don’t only damage the Indian shrimp industry but the global shrimp industry more broadly.

Disclaimer: As part of the analysis, Galaxeye Space has compared its results with the data from India’s forest department. Although there are slight differences in the absolute figures, both sources confirm the trend of growth of the total area under mangroves.

Contact the author at willem@shrimpinsights.com for more information on this analysis?

Credit: GalaxEye Space

SPECIFIC FOR YOUR SUCCESS

Animals robustness and resilience comes from within. We believe that’s never been more true than today.

Our passion is harnessing the natural power of yeast and bacteria to support health, well-being and performance of all farmed aquatic species.

We help our industry partners and farmers sustainably feeding and farming shrimp with a complete range of microbial solutions for: gut health, immune support, antioxidant balance and micro-nutrition pond water and soil quality.

Four models and one farm

How the commercial application of four farming models is working well for the team at PT Delta Marine farm in Sumbawa

By Zuridah Merican

W

hen Rizky Darmawan took over the management of the PT Delta Marine farm in 2014, the 70ha farm in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia had 33 cement ponds. In 2018, expansion was with 20 ponds of 0.25ha in two new sections and 3 treatment ponds of 0.4ha each.

Today, the farm is operating 55 concrete and lined ponds, 18 round tanks and 3 raceways. Rizky and farm manager Joseph Santoso, both in their 30s, share the ambition of constantly innovating to find the best way to increase productivity in shrimp grow-out. A strong feature is the more than 600m intake pipe into the ocean and waste settling ponds with lush mangroves. There are 13 treatment and reservoir ponds.

“We want to be more future focus. I am paranoid for the future and do not want to keep to my comfort zone. We must keep looking for innovative ideas such as round tanks and raceways to always be better. That is how we can set ourselves apart from other players. I realise that the majority of shrimp farmers are often contented and keep to the same structure and do not try to change,” said Rizky.

Raceways

Among the four models at the farm, Rizky’s favourite is the 50m long and 20m wide, 1000m2 raceways. The depth at the shallow end is 1.5m. “Before, the hype was to construct round tanks to utilise space. However, compared to the land area used for round tanks, I find that raceways are the most efficient in terms of the use of land. They are straight and long, and they don’t need much gap between them, maximising space. We stock at 300 PL/m2 now, and we can continue to stock more,” said Rizky.

“We started in 2021 and have gone through more than four cycles successfully. We have not had a bad crop with this raceway design, and I am tempted to expand with more raceways. The production was 5.2 tonnes/1,000m2 A cost and space advantage is that raceways can share a wall.”

Both Rizky and Joseph are proud of the raceway design and now want to incorporate HDPE liners onto these raceways.

Currently, there are three of these raceway systems, one is 50m long x 20m wide, and two, 50m long x 10m wide. The raceway is designed to keep sloping down towards one of its corners where the drain/shrimp toilet is located. Paddlewheels and diffusers aerate the water.

Rizky Darmawan (right) and farm manager Joseph Santoso, both in their 30s, share the ambition of constantly innovating to find the best way to increase productivity in shrimp growout.

A discussion was whether they should place solar panels across the concrete raceways. One might say that solar panels will shield away the sunlight but for Rizky, there is not much need for plankton in intensive culture systems. With solar energy he has calculated savings of 5-10% versus electricity from the grid.

“My only concern is the wastage of solar energy during the shutdown period as we practise an all-in all-out process for each site. Solar energy is very useful if we adopt a staggered production protocol,” said Rizky.

Bringing in the aspect of staff welfare, Joseph explained that during the shutdown period, which is around 40 days and includes pond drying, staff will visit families. “This is important for them. For all models and throughout the farm, we have a thorough clean-up process after each cycle.”

Round tanks

There are now two super large round tanks of 1,000m2 with 37m diameter, in addition to 16 smaller tanks with

314m2 area. In the large tanks, in one cycle, the stocking density of PL10 was 300 PL/m2 and over days of culture (DOC) 115, shrimp reached size 31/kg.

Joseph said, “There was partial harvesting bringing the total harvest to 7.2 tonnes/cycle or 72 tonnes/ha. Aeration is from blowers and paddlewheels. We use one HP per 200m2 of water. These large tanks have a new shrimp toilet system, and we manage just by pulling the cord to release the waste.”

Concrete and lined ponds

All in all, there are 91 ponds including reservoir ponds, occupying 30ha of the total land area of 70ha. Additionally, there are 18 ponds used for trials with sizes ranging from 314m2 to 1,000m2. Concrete ponds followed a design from the 1980s.

Stocking density ranges from 150-180 PL/m2. Partial harvesting starts at DOC 70 and each partial harvest is 5-10 tonnes. It is all-in all-out for each section.

Partial harvesting at DOC 90 and packing for the long journey to the processing plant, alternately layering 300kg ice and 300kg shrimp and finally adding more ice.

Cement ponds.

Some of the smaller round tanks and lined ponds.

Productivity and disease management

At the farm, there have been outbreaks of white faeces disease (WFD) and infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV). In the case of WFD, the strategy is to use probiotics to address the Vibrio population.

Recently, the success rate has been 90% and the survival rate was 95% with FCR of 1.2. Harvest sizes are around size 30/kg. Each cycle is 120 days. Rizky explained that success rate means that ponds have gone through a full 120 days in the pond. “Our SOP is that once we see a problem with the crop, we harvest.”

FCR versus shrimp size

On the best FCR at this farm, Joseph said, “This was 1.02 at DOC77 size 57/kg in the round tank model. In a discussion on prices versus size and cost of production, two young farmers from Thailand said that for them prices reach a plateau such that it is THB 180/kg for size 3035/kg and THB210/kg for size 25-29/kg. While costs of production continue to increase mainly due to higher FCR, the differential in prices are small which does not merit growing larger shrimp. In contrast, in Indonesia, prices continue to rise with size which encourage farmers to produce larger shrimp.

Cost of production

The average cost of production (COP) for concrete and lined ponds are around IDR35,000/kg (USD2.16/kg) for size 30/kg. In a comparison of COP for his four culture models, Rizky said that the round tanks are newer models, and the COP is lower because of higher stocking density. Nevertheless, it is difficult to compare with other farms as here, COP is also spread over an area such as 1,000m2 with sharing of lab services etc. COP is affected when the survival rate is low and while the same energy needs are applied.

Shrimp from a partial harvest at DOC90, size 64/kg.

12 Shrimp Aquaculture

Farm automation

The general understanding is that real time monitoring of ponds has its merits. “In the perfect world, it should work but the accuracy is still not there yet. Finally, the decision has to be done by humans which means that automation helps to draw out a problem but solving it requires experience. In some cases, we need one equipment for each pond, which is expensive for large farms like this with 76 ponds. Effectiveness also depends on the worker’s level of training and skill,” said Rizky.

“In Indonesia, labour is cheap. We have the responsibility to give employment to the local community. There is a social sustainability aspect and the more we employ, the more the community benefits. In our opinion, it is good enough to monitor using our YSL probes for the daily checks, and test several other parameters, once or twice a week.”

Increasing production targets

“My next move is to try to run a nursery. This will increase our number of cycles/year. Now we have 2.5 cycles/year and produce 2,000 tonnes/year. With a nursery, we may increase to produce 3,000 tonnes/year. With a nursery, production will be like clockwork.

However, this may mean that the staff may not have their usual and important break cycle holidays. “We really need to understand the consequences and outcomes before making a decision about this.”

“We want to be more future focus. We must keep looking for innovative ideas such as round tanks and raceways to always be better. That is how we can set ourselves apart from other players.” - Rizky

of

only

On a wall

a raceway, Rizky with two young Thai farmers. Chodpipat Limlertvatee (left), LK Farm in Chumphon province and Chaimet Chuenchom, TSM Farm in Ranong, attended the Shrimp Aquaculture Conference in Bali, organised by PMI.

A large 37m diameter round tank. There are

two of these. In one cycle, the stocking density of PL10 was 300 PL/m2 and over days of culture (DOC) 115, shrimp reached size 31/kg.

Effects and economics of partial replacement of Artemia with dry feeds in post larvae production

Replacement showed no negative effects on the hatchery productivity and post larvae quality, and yielded 10% savings in feed input costs

By Babu Rathinam, Grace Angel and Victor Suresh

and appeared to be healthy and stress-free.

PL12 harvested at the end of the trial. Shrimp were actively swimming against the water current and appeared to be healthy and stress-free.

of the rectangular cement tanks used in hatcheries and has a volume of 140L. The tanks received constant aeration via a 25mm PVC pipe laid at the bottom of the tank and connected to a 1HP ring blower. Seawater flowing through an ultra-filter (<0.5µm) was used in the tanks.

A single batch of specific pathogen free (SPF) Litopenaeus vannamei post larvae (PL3) was transferred from the commercial production unit to GSHFTC. Post larvae were stocked at either 8,000 or 11,500 PL/tank resulting in stocking densities of 60 PL/L and 80 PL/L respectively. Post larvae were fed six times a day, every four hours and each meal consisted of live Artemia nauplii and the Growel Origin hatchery feed.

Within each stocking density, two feeding protocols were tested (Table 1):

• A standard feeding protocol adopted in most hatcheries;

• A test feeding protocol in which Artemia feeding was reduced by 25% and Growel Origin® shrimp hatchery feed was increased by 25%.

Effects and economics of partial replacement of Artemia with dry feeds in post larvae production

Replacement showed no negative effects on the hatchery productivity and post larvae quality, and yielded 10% savings in feed input costs

By Babu Rathinam, Grace Angel and Victor Suresh

Feed inputs constitute a major cost component in shrimp hatchery operations. Approximately, 3.4kg of Artemia cysts and 8kg of dry feeds are required to produce one million vannamei shrimp post larvae. Together these two feed components cost about USD480-520 per million of post larvae production. Artemia cysts cost 350% more than dry feeds and involve additional costs to hatch them into live nauplii. So, a replacement of Artemia with dry feeds will reduce the cost of post larvae production provided that such replacement will have no negative effect on the hatchery productivity and post larvae quality.

Two sizes of Growel Origin feed were used. Particles with an average size of 150µm were fed to post larvae of 1-7 days (PL1-7) and 300µm for post larvae more than 5 days (PL5). Five randomly chosen tanks were assigned for each dietary treatment at each stocking density in a 2x2 design.

Feed inputs constitute a major cost component in shrimp hatchery operations. Approximately, 3.4kg of Artemia cysts and 8kg of dry feeds are required to produce one million vannamei shrimp post larvae. Together these two feed components cost about USD480post larvae production. Artemia cysts cost 350% more than dry feeds and involve additional costs to hatch them into live nauplii. So, replacement of Artemia with dry feeds will reduce the cost of post larvae production provided that such replacement will have no negative effect on the hatchery productivity and post larvae quality.

In this article, we report the results of a feeding trial where Artemia usage was reduced by 25% and compensated by an increase in the dry diet by 25%. The test was done at two different stocking densities of post larvae (PL) in the tanks: 60 PL/L and 80 PL/L - the lower and upper ends of stocking densities used in commercial hatcheries. Growel Origin® shrimp hatchery feed, an extruded, crumbled, micro coated feed produced in India (Growel Feeds Private Limited) was used exclusively throughout the trial.

Trial methodology

The feeding trial was conducted at the Growel Shrimp Hatchery Feed Trial Center (GSHFTC) which is located within the premises of a commercial hatchery near Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, India. The centre has 25 ‘U’ shaped tanks made of fiber reinforced plastic. Each tank is a miniature

PL12 harvested at the end of the trial. Shrimp were actively swimming against the water current

A view of the Growel hatchery feed trial facility.

Table 1. Standard and test feeding protocols, and Artemia nauplii per PL/feeding administered in the trial. Feed/day/tank was divided into 6 rations/day.

Water exchange was 30-50% per day according to post larval age. Salinity was gradually decreased every day by 3ppt from 30 to 5ppt on the day of final harvest to acclimate the PL to the low salinity at which they will be stocked in the ponds. An average of 20 post larvae were collected daily to assess rostral development, average total body length, and muscle gut ratio.

Stress tests

When post larvae reached the PL12 stage, the tanks were completely harvested to assess survival (%), mean PL length (mm), and biomass harvested (g) from each tank. Additionally, 20 post larvae were taken from each tank to perform two stress tolerance tests. Post larvae from each treatment were packed in plastic bags with oxygen in the same manner as for packing for transportation and left for 12 hours. Post larvae were then counted to assess survival. In the second test, post larvae in 5ppt water were transferred to 30ppt water for 30 minutes and then transferred back to fresh water for 30 minutes. Post larval swimming activity, colour changes and mortality were observed during the stress tests.

“The strategy of reducing live Artemia by 25% and increasing the dry diet by 25% can give cost savings of USD 24-25/million PL production which represents 10% savings in feed inputs cost.”

Growth performance and economic analysis

Over the 11-day experimental period, water quality parameters remained within the optimal range for the post larvae, with no significant difference among the treatments (temperature 30-32oC; pH 8.1 and total ammonia nitrogen 2-3mg/L).

Survival, post larvae length and weight were consistently high among all treatments (Table 2). Within post larvae in

the standard feeding protocol group, higher survival was observed in the tanks stocked at 60 PL/L and slightly lower survival was observed in the tanks stocked at 80 PL/L.

The average total length of the post larvae was higher when stocked at 60 PL/L as compared to those stocked at 80 PL/L. The highest mean body weight of 8.95mg/PL was achieved in post larvae stocked at 60 PL/L and with the treatment protocol in which Artemia was reduced and dry feed quantity was increased. The post larvae body weights of other treatments were nearly similar (Table 2).

Table 2. Effects of PL density and feeding protocol on growth and survival of white shrimp Litpenaeus vannamei. Each value is the mean±SD of five replicates.

Results from the stress tests revealed post larvae survival at more than 95% in both tests. No signs of stress were evident when post larvae were transferred from 5 ppt to 30ppt and then to freshwater. There was no noticeable difference in post larval swimming behaviour among the treatments. Shrimp were actively swimming against the water current and were observed to be healthy and stress-free.

Protocols

Table 3. Cost comparison between the different feeding protocols.

Economic analysis

This is shown in Table 3. Reducing the use of Artemia by 25% and concurrently increasing dry feed by the same percentage resulted in consistent savings of about USD24-25/million PL production which represented about 10% savings in feed input costs.

Although the post larvae stocked at 60 PL/L, performed slightly superior to those stocked at 80 PL/L, the latter group showed acceptable performance under the standard feeding protocol and exceptional performance when live Artemia was reduced and Growel Origin® dry feed was increased.

More importantly, the cost of feed inputs to produce a million PL was lower when the post larvae were stocked at a higher density because the feed or Artemia nauplii must be at a sufficiently high density in water to enable the post larvae to find the feed easily before consuming them. Most other hatchery operating costs per unit of post larvae production would also be lower at the higher stocking density provided that the productivity per tank (mainly driven by survival) or post larvae quality were not adversely affected.

We believe that the higher stocking density of 80 PL/L can be easily supported by the use of a good dry feed and management, and there is no need to rely more on live Artemia feeding in the higher densities.

Conclusions

Reducing the use of live Artemia by 25% and compensating for the reduction by increasing dry feed usage by 25% did not result in any major negative impacts on water quality, survival, growth or stress tolerance of vannamei post larvae between PL3 and PL12 even when the post larvae were stocked at a density of 80 PL/L. Growel Origin shrimp hatchery feed was used as the only dry feed in the trial and found to support consistently high survival and growth of vannamei post larvae.

If a good quality dry feed is used and the tanks are well managed, stocking density can be maintained at 80 PL/L without any discernible adverse impacts on the hatchery productivity or post larvae quality. This strategy of reducing live Artemia and increasing the equivalent with dry diet can give about 10% savings in the cost of feed inputs.

Grace Angel is Manager, Nutrition & Feeds R&D

Dr Victor Suresh is Technical Director.

All authors are with Growel Feeds Private Limited, India. Email: nutrition@growelfeeds.com

Babu Rathinam is Technical Manager, Hatchery Feeds R&D

The search for sustainable and nutrient-rich shrimp feed leads to krill

The future of the shrimp aquaculture industry depends on cost efficient and more sustainable feed ingredients. Through years of study, krill has proven to be a well-managed marine resource that can fill nutritional gaps and stimulate strong growth performance.

Shrimp aquaculture is a growing industry, with a rising consumer demand focusing on sustainable operations. At the same time, pressure on marine wild stocks is increasing. Commercially farmed shrimp accounts for 83.7% of the world’s shrimp consumption today. Presently, this industry faces challenges stemming from oversupply in the market, which has led to falling prices in recent years.

The mission of the modern shrimp farmer has become a delicate balancing act of securing sustainable operations, while taking the right measures to achieve production and economic efficiency. The combined goal of sustainability and efficiency in shrimp aquaculture has put the spotlight on shrimp feed which has emerged as a key factor in terms of balancing costs and reducing impacts to support sustainable growth in the industry.

The challenge of costly shrimp feed

“Feed can represent over 50% of shrimp production costs. When attempting to reduce these costs by removing expensive ingredients, there is a risk of eliminating nutrients that are essential for the shrimp’s growth and health,’’ says Lena Burri, Director R&D Animal Nutrition and Health at Aker BioMarine.

The question for the industry and for the aquaculture scientific community has become: how do we secure nutrient-rich feeds with effective ingredients that are both sustainable and cost-efficient?

The search for new, sustainable and costefficient marine ingredients

Marine ingredients are at the heart of an effective shrimp feed. They are rich in protein and essential amino acids that are key to strong growth performance. In essence, they play an important role in ensuring good production outcomes. However, many marine ingredients can be costly, especially when included at high levels, and they are increasingly scarce resources due to overfishing of some marine species.

“It’s not a question of whether to include marine ingredients in the feed, but rather, which marine ingredients to include and at what inclusion levels. Over the course of many years and multiple scientific studies, we see that krill stands out amongst its marine peers as a well-managed and sustainable resource that has proven effective in stimulating growth of shrimp when put to the test, side-by-side, with other marine ingredients,” says Dr Alberto J.P. Nunes, Professor at Federal University of Ceará’s Institute of Marine Sciences – LABOMAR.

Krill’s effectiveness in shrimp feed formulations

Much of the scientific study around shrimp feed formulation has been dedicated to evaluating the effectiveness of diets with low amounts of marine ingredients, testing whether minimising the inclusion of marine ingredients in the right combination can still contribute to performance. In one such review study developed in 2022 (Nunes et al., 2022) by LABOMAR and Aker BioMarine, the authors asserted that Antarctic krill, in its krill meal form, is a viable option to fill the nutritional gaps created by the reduced inclusion of other, less sustainable, and potentially higher cost marine ingredients.

In a typical feed formulation, more than half of the formula consists of protein raw materials and crystalline amino acids derived from marine ingredients. These nutrients amount to more than two-thirds of the cost – which makes them the most expensive part of the shrimp feed. To reduce this cost, the typical course of action is to replace the marine source of the protein and amino acids with plant-based sources, such as soybean or canola meal, or animal by-products.

“The downside of using plant-based ingredients or animal by-products in the feed is the lower nutritional value and reduced effectiveness when it comes to stimulating growth performance. When we look at krill meal in comparison, we see a sustainable and nutrientrich ingredient that has proven effective in multiple

Dr Lena Burri says, “ When attempting to reduce these costs by removing expensive ingredients, there is a risk of eliminating nutrients that are essential for the shrimp’s growth and health.”

Krill was ranked as the best feeding effector and growth enhancer for Pacific whiteleg shrimp in comparison to six other marine ingredients (Nunes et al., 2019).

THE SUSTAINABLE SHRIMP FEED INGREDIENT

Krill is a sustainable and functional feed ingredient. It is certified by MSC.

aquaculture feed trials – with results showing that it stimulates appetite and enhances growth even at lower inclusion levels,” explains Nunes.

In a 2019 scientific review article (Nunes et al., 2019) also conducted by LABOMAR and Aker BioMarine, the scientists ranked krill meal as the best feeding effector and growth enhancer for Pacific whiteleg shrimp in comparison to six other marine ingredients. In a new study published in 2024, it was demonstrated that an inclusion as low as 1.5% of krill meal was enough to increase feed intake and enhance growth, yield, and feed conversion ratio (FCR). In this study, other ingredients were optimised and resulted in good performance with low marine ingredient inclusions, reducing as much as 75% of less sustainable marine ingredients. The authors asserted that the strong growth results were likely due to krill’s feed attractiveness along with the dietary nutrients it delivers.

Krill meal serves as a nutritional powerhouse in shrimp feeds

To understand the unique qualities of krill, it’s important to look to its origins. Antarctic krill is found in the pristine waters of the Southern Ocean, where it feeds on microscopic algae – consuming up to 20% of its own body weight each day. Krill’s nutrition-rich profile has put it in the ‘super ingredient’ category – high in protein, peptides, essential amino acids, micronutrients, and phospholipids that carry fatty acids, including the all-important omega-3s. Peptides and amino acids in krill also happen to be feed attractants, which help to increase the attractability and palatability of the feed. The result is that more feed is consumed by the shrimp and less is wasted, leading to greater growth due to high intake and overall improved efficiency combined with a lower feed loss.

“The combination of krill’s rich protein and lipid profile, with the phospholipids, vitamins, chitin, and astaxanthin it contains, makes it an ideal feeding component for shrimp feeds. The bonus is that it is also a sustainable ingredient - a merit that is increasingly important to shrimp producers who seek to reduce their environmental impact,” says Ragnhild Dragøy, VP Product Management and Sustainability for Feed Ingredients, Aker BioMarine.

The growing importance of sustainable ingredients in shrimp feed Norway-based Aker BioMarine accounts for the majority (65-70%) of the global catch of krill. Krill catch limits are set at less than 1% of the total estimated biomass in Area 48, a measure that is strictly regulated by the Commission for Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living

For Dr Alberto J.P. Nunes, the question is, “which marine ingredients to include and at what inclusion levels.”

Low marine ingredient inclusions, reducing as much as 75% of less sustainable marine ingredients increase feed intake and enhance growth, yield, and feed conversion ratio (Nunes et al, 2022)

“..a merit that is increasingly important to shrimp producers who seek to reduce their environmental impact,” says Ragnhild Dragøy.

Resources (CCAMLR). The krill biomass has been closely monitored for decades, and according to a recent 10-year monitoring study (Skaret et al., 2022), the Antarctic population has held steady and has even exhibited growth in the last two decades.

“What’s notable about Aker BioMarine’s krill operation is our strict management and underutilisation of the krill resource. We aim for zero by-catch, low emissions, and full transparency across the entire value chain, which means that every batch of krill can be traced all the way back to where it was caught. This precautionary approach has resulted in a healthy and plentiful krill biomass, making it a sustainable and well-supplied ingredient for shrimp feed,” says Pål Einar Skogrand, VP Policy and Impact, Aker BioMarine.

“The need to reduce shrimp feed costs is growing more urgent in this challenging industry. However, reducing costs cannot come at the expense of nutrition and sustainability of the operation,” he adds.

What separates krill from the marine ingredient pack?

In the quest to find an ingredient that balances these requirements, krill stands out amongst its fellow feed ingredients. Its combination of proteins, nutrients and feed attractants is enabling the reduction of other marine ingredients that may be scarce in supply, costly or unsustainably fished. Krill meal opens the door to improving the cost efficiency and nutritional intake of shrimp, without sacrificing sustainability. It’s a win-winwin for shrimp aquaculture.

References

Nunes AJP, Dalen LL, Leonardi G, Burri L (2022). Developing sustainable, cost-effective and high-performance shrimp feed formulations containing low fish meal levels. Aquacult Reports; 27, 101422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aqrep.2022.101422

Nunes AJP, Sabry-Neto H, Oliveira-Neto S, Burri L. (2019). Feed preference and growth response of juvenile Litopenaeus vannamei to supplementation of marine chemoattractants in a fishmeal-challenged diet. J World Aquacult Soc. 2019; 50: 1048–1063. https://doi.org/10.1111/jwas.12648

Skaret G, Macaulay GJJ, Pedersen R, Wang X, Klevjer TA, Krag LA, Krafft BA (2023). Distribution and biomass estimation of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) off the South Orkney Islands during 2011–2020, ICES Journal of Marine Science, 80(5), 1472, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsad076

Sustainable aquafeed takes centre stage

This year’s Seafood Expo in Barcelona was a huge success for the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), as the organisation garnered attention for its efforts in promoting responsible aquafeed production. The three-day Seafood Expo event, which attracted over 35,000 seafood professionals, saw ASC’s distinctive branded booth becoming a focal point for seafood enthusiasts, experts, retailers, buyers, and processors alike.

One of the highlights of the expo was ASC’s panel event, which centred on the importance of responsibly produced aquafeed. The panel, featuring key industry players, drew a crowd of 120 attendees eager to learn more about the ASC Feed Standard and its implications for the aquaculture industry.

With the theme ‘Feed Responsibly: Why Responsible Aquaculture Needs Responsible Feed’, key industry players shared how they are adopting the ASC Feed Standard to drive transparency, social and environmental improvements in feed supply chains. The panel included representatives from Skretting, Thai Union, and New England Seafood, each offering unique perspectives on their journey towards responsible feed production.

Esther Luiten, ASC’s Commercial Director kicked off the event with a warm welcome, acknowledging the impressive turnout. The focus of the day was on responsible feed production—an essential component of sustainable aquaculture. Luiten proudly announced the certification achievements of three feed companies, highlighting their commitments to meeting the rigorous standards set by ASC. She emphasised the global reach of this initiative, with certified sites spanning from Mexico to Thailand, Chile, and Ecuador, and exciting prospects in the pipeline for further expansion.

The significance of responsible feed cannot be overstated, given its pivotal role in shaping the future of aquaculture. Luiten underscored the challenges inherent in achieving this goal, setting the stage for a panel discussion on the difficulties in driving impactful change. Before delving into the dialogue, a brief video provided insight into the ASC standard, setting the tone for an engaging exploration of responsible feed practices.

Transparency and traceability in feed sourcing

Ruth Hoban, Head of Sustainability at New England Seafood emphasised the importance of transparency and traceability in feed sourcing for her company. Hoban spoke about the increasing scrutiny from UK retailers and NGOs regarding these demands. She emphasised the need for standards like the ASC Feed Standard to guide companies on their journey towards responsible feed sourcing. The dialogue delved into the broader implications of the ASC Feed Standard beyond marine ingredients, with Hoban shedding light on the evolving landscape of feed production. She highlighted the importance of due diligence and assurance in sourcing raw materials, emphasising the role of the ASC standard in providing greater transparency and confidence to processors and retailers.

pro Autolyzed brewers’ yeast

Rich in nutrients and active ingredients

High bioavailability of the same

Stimulates the metabolism

Promotes feed intake and performance

Commitments to responsible feed sourcing

Adam Brennan, Chief Sustainability Officer, Thai Union Group elaborated on the group’s ambitious sustainability strategy, which includes commitments to responsible feed sourcing aligned with climate change and biodiversity goals. He emphasised on the role of the ASC Feed Standard in helping the company deliver on its commitments.

He elucidated the tangible benefits of the ASC Feed Standard for his company’s sustainability goals. He emphasised how the standard aligns with Thai Union’s commitments to climate responsibility and sustainable aquaculture, providing a robust framework for addressing material risks within the supply chain. Brennan stressed on the credibility and scalability of the standard, underlining its role in driving impact at scale while instilling consumer confidence through the ASC label.

Risk mitigation and industry advancement

Jorge Diaz, Global Sustainability Manager, Skretting shared insights from his company’s journey in embracing the ASC Feed Standard, reflecting on the initial apprehension, daunting challenges and subsequent determination to forge ahead on the journey towards certification. Diaz highlighted the subsequent benefit of adopting responsible feed practices and spoke about the transformative potential of the standard in reshaping relationships with suppliers. With a commitment towards understanding these standards, he explained that taking a collaborative approach is necessary for risk mitigation and industry advancement.

A growing awareness among stakeholders

Alexandra Warrington, Feed Standard Senior Coordinator, ASC concluded the panel session by emphasising on the collaborative efforts needed to drive positive impacts on both people and the planet through responsible feed production. Warrington set the stage by expressing her delight at the growing awareness among stakeholders regarding the pivotal role of feed in fostering responsible aquaculture.

She emphasised that responsible culture is inseparable from responsible feed, noting the critical need to

address the wide-ranging impacts of feed production throughout the supply chain. Warrington lauded the introduction of the ASC Feed Standard as a pivotal step towards scrutinising these impacts and driving meaningful change.

Discussing the initial reactions from feed companies, she highlighted a spectrum of responses, ranging from eagerness to apprehension. She elucidated on the complexity of the ASC Feed Standard, which was crafted in consultation with diverse stakeholders to address the multifaceted nature of supply chain risks. Warrington reiterated ASC’s commitment to supporting feed mills in navigating the requirements of the standard.

The positive reception and continuous support from stakeholders across the aquaculture supply chain reaffirmed ASC’s commitment to promoting responsible feed practices.

As the dialogue ended, it became evident that while challenges remain, the ASC Feed Standard represents an important step forward in fostering sustainability and responsible practices within the aquaculture industry. With continued collaboration and support, stakeholders might be able to navigate the complexities of feed production, paving the way for a more sustainable future. With more feed companies undergoing the certification process, the momentum towards environmentally and socially responsible feed production continues to grow.

The Seafood Expo Global served as a platform for meaningful dialogue and collaboration towards a more sustainable future for aquaculture. As the demand for responsibly sourced seafood continues to rise, initiatives like the ASC Feed Standard play a vital role in driving positive change across the aquaculture supply chain.

ASC certified farms have until October 2025 to switch to sourcing compliant feed produced under the ASC Feed Standard. Feed mills that get certified in 2024 will not have to pay licence fees on the volume of compliant feed they produce this calendar year.

In the panel, from left, Alexandra Warrington, Jorge Diaz, Adam Brennan and Ruth Hoban . Standing is Esther Luiten. (Source: ASC)

Growth of aquaculture requires alternative and sustainable feed ingredients

The USGC international aquaculture conference’s topics range from demand and supply, feed sustainability to DDGS and corn fermented protein for aquafeeds

The ecosystem for aquafeeds continues to change. It is now the era of Aquafeeds V3 where the focus is on traceability and sustainability, according to IFFO’s Director of Research, Dr Brett Glencross. By October 2025, Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)’s certified farms must use feeds certified to its new feed standards. A new challenge from 2025 is the EU’s Deforestation Regulation affecting the entire supply chain for soy complex (soybeans, soy oils and soy meals etc).“While aquafeed millers constantly seek sustainable feed ingredients, a demand is out there for sustainable feed ingredients, but this comes at a cost,” said Ronnie Tan, Aquaculture Consultant, USGC.

“The US Grains Council promotes two corn co-products, Distiller’s Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) and corn fermented protein (CFP); both can play a larger role in aquafeed production, particularly with regards to sustainability,” said Carlos Suarez, USGC’s Sustainability Manager. Sustainability in aquaculture is more complex and different from that for livestock production.

Taking advantage of the presence of the global seafood and aquaculture stakeholders attending Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, USGC held a half day International Aquaculture Conference. Ramy H. Taieb, Regional Director, US Grains Council - Middle East, Africa and Europe and Karisha Kuypers, Agricultural Attaché, USDA FAS Madrid welcomed over 40 aquafeed producers, together with shrimp and fish farmers.

Global shrimp supply outlook

Rabobank’s Novel Sharma, Analyst-Seafood, said that 2024 is seeing the lowest shrimp prices. At the retail level, they do not reflect those at wholesale prices and the hope is that retail prices will go down leading to increase in demand.

China’s domestic supply is expected to affect future demand, but the macroeconomics of the country does not favour the population spending a lot on buying shrimp. “We need the demand and supply to close up to have better prices,” said Sharma.

Supply in 2023 and 2024

Growth in supply from Ecuador is expected to slow down to 5% in 2024. Ecuador is pushed by its technification process in the farming level and investment in processing. Ecuador’s industry can pivot to any product, as its exporters did in 2021 to quickly match market demands. After years of growth, Southeast Asia’s production is expected to drop, led by Vietnam and Indonesia.

Despite low prices, Rabobank does not expect supply to contract in 2024. It expects India and Indonesia to be encouraged by US demand expectations. “Low prices will remain and become the new normal. Even in an optimistic

scenario of a faster demand recovery, globally there is sufficient supply growth potential to prevent a strong price recovery.”

El Niño is tapering off which will help feed producers. Fish meal volumes will recover to the 5 million tonnes mark. “The fishmeal/soy meal price ratio is expected to continue a gradual decline after hitting its peak in Q3 2023. The five-year average was 4.2,” said Sharma.

Outlook for the tilapia and catfish

Ragnar Nystøyl, Chief Analyst, Kontali discussed trends in the global supply of tilapia and merged these into aquafeed demand. Tilapia and catfish fit into the lower end of the seafood ladder, with prices around USD1.60/ kg and USD1.20/kg. In comparison, salmonids are at USD9.50/kg. In terms of supply, global volumes of the tilapia reached 6.5 million tonnes at a 5-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.8% while for the catfish, mainly pangasius from Vietnam, volumes reached 5.2 million tonnes at a CAGR of 3.2%.

In 2023, aquafeed volumes were expected to decline in the order of 4% for tilapia feed and 5% for catfish feed. Overall aquafeed volumes have been on the decline in 2023 according to the data from Alltech. The decline was led by China and Southeast Asia.

Kontali adopts the weighed raw material index for salmon feeds and using this, Nystøyl demonstrated that inflation and squeezing margins led to slow growth. Tough feed logistics have affected the trade of tilapia and catfish from China and Southeast Asia to the EU, Africa and America. “In mid-December 2023, the Red Sea crisis had a significant impact on trade and imports to the EU; the total volume during that period was only 99,113 tonnes”.

Tilapia and catfish trade

Growth in tilapia supply levelled off in 2023. The US was no longer driving growth of the tilapia market. US volumes declined from 700,000 to 450,000 tonnes but the US remained the reference for the tilapia trade. In terms of prices, those for fresh tilapia have increased while frozen tilapia declined to USD4.00/kg in 2023 and frozen whole fish price hovered around USD2.00/kg. For the catfish, the major markets were China, USA and the EU.

2024 and beyond

The volume growth for the tilapia is uncertain because of feed costs but price levels may improve with international trade of frozen tilapia. Issues on feed, price and inconvenient logistics are expected to hamper growth for both tilapia and catfish. Kontali expects growth of both pangasius and hybrid/local catfish in Latin America for local and regional consumption.

Aquafeed demand and grains supply

According to Tan, the Alltech Global Feed Survey showed aquafeed production in 2023 at 52.09 million tonnes, down 4% from the previous year. Shrimp feed volume was over 8 million tonnes mainly from Latin America and Asia, but with growth in the former and stagnation in the latter.

Global tilapia feed production was over 9 million tonnes led by China, Egypt, Indonesia, Brazil and Bangladesh. Global production of pangasius catfish feed was over 4.5 million tonnes (excluding China) and if farmgate prices of the fish do not improve, the industry will continue with economical feeds.

The outlook for 2024 sees new challenges. “Will inflation, looming recession and gloom in the US, EU and China respectively, dent seafood demand?” asked Tan. While salmon prices will remain high, securing feed volumes, low shrimp prices will cause shrimp feed volumes to shrink. Notwithstanding, feed insecurity is on the rise. Fishmeal prices are expected to soften but current inventory is still low.

Tan echoed Nystøyl, that bottlenecks at Suez and Panama Canals will tighten the supply chain. Alternative protein ingredients are in the feed companies’ radar, but utilisation will depend on price and scalability. Tan gave a 2H 2024 outlook on grain supply, forecasting lower soybean meal prices and range-bound prices for corn and DDGS with supporting fundamentals.

Synergies between marine meals and grains

Glencross showed how the use of ingredients is changing. As aquaculture grew, formulation became much clearer,

but the need was to control cost. With regards to fishmeal, aquaculture is using fishmeal more than before. It continues to be used as a strategic ingredient. Grains will underpin all feeds going forward. Growth in grain consumption by 2032 will be 465 million tonnes and feed will consume 106 million tonnes.

Where are we with formulation now?

Glencross discussed how diet formulations are designed, stressing that formulations are based on nutrients, Increasingly, industry is looking at formulations based on digestible levels such as digestible energy and protein. Using the example of a modern formulation for the Asian seabass, Glencross demonstrated how specifications change for different stages. Eight different specifications can be applied over the production cycle of this fish (from first feeding to 5kg harvest size).

Secondly, digestible levels are fixed but crude or gross levels vary. Thirdly, as the animal’s size changes, there is a different pellet size and the protein: energy dynamics will also change. He discussed the regulation of feed intake and how the fish reacts to feed. Fish have the same five senses as humans do, plus the ability to sense vibrations in water via their lateral line and in some cases electrical currents. Fish have a higher sensory capacity than mammals and marine meals stimulate feed intake.

Future synergies

“All feed ingredients have SWOT - strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. There is no such thing as the perfect ingredient,” said Glencross. He added that all ingredients have risks and formulators need to be aware of the ramifications and impact they create on formulations. But with an understanding of the strengths of an ingredient, and the weaknesses of another,

USGC also participated in Seafood Expo Global with a booth. Visitors and conference participants, from right, Tho Ching Ching, COO and Allen Goh, CEO at GST, Malaysia; Guntur Mallarangeng, CEO, Delos Aqua Indonesia with visitor, Francisco Murillo, Tropo Farms, Ghana.

complementarity is possible. Marine ingredients are complementary to increasing grain use in feeds, providing cost effective nutrients.

“Managing diet palatability is becoming critical and control of palatability will empower formulation,” said Glencross. Palatants tend to be enzymatic or acid hydrolysates of fishery products with key chemical stimuli such as peptides and free amino acids. The typical inclusion rates are 0.5-5% but Glencross reminded that responses are variable depending on hydrolysis, between species but overall, still gives good palatability.

Seabass and seabream in the Mediterranean Kantham Papanna, Consultant on Fish Pathology & Aquaculture, formerly Head, Fish Pathology, Nireus Aquaculture (now Avramar) said that together Greece and Turkey produced 70% of European production, with a total volume of 363,000 tonnes in 2022. Species wise, volumes were 28% gilthead bream and seabass at 25%. Economic sustainability is a concern for players in Greece and Turkey and a common challenge is high feed and energy costs. Turkey also faces currency devaluation and high inflation.

Major markets are local as well as Italy, Spain, and France. The supply chain is limited to chilled fish which needs a cold chain supply line from harvest point to final markets. Turkey has the advantage of selling to Russia while there is an embargo for EU producers. Tracking prices, Kantham showed that these have been quite unstable over the past two decades. March 2024 prices were €6/kg for the seabass and €5.5/kg for the seabream. In Greece, 300 companies in Greece are integrated from hatchery to sale and logistics and a few have retail outlets.

There is a two-phase grow-out in open sea cages over a 2-year cycle. In year 1, small 60-80m diameter cages hold 2-60g fish and in year 2, large cages (100-200m diameter) and 15-20m deep, hold more than 60g fish to harvest. Genetically improved juveniles reach harvest sizes of 350-450g fish in 13-18 months with over-wintering when water temperatures are 16°C.

The hatchery segment is well organised. With technological advancement, survival to 2g fry has improved tremendously over 35 years to the present 45% for seabream and 25% for seabass. Some 70% of the juveniles produced are from genetically improved stock. In Greece, Avramar, the largest producer in the Mediterranean works with Benchmark Genetics and Scotland’s Xelect. Japanese and Scandinavian breeding companies are working in Turkey. Their output has seen improvements in harvest weight, fillet yield, body shape, robustness, deformity reduction and disease resistance against Vibrio, viral nervous necrosis (VNN) and parasites.

Vaccinations against several pathogens are in place starting with 20g fish, better nutrition with functional feed ingredients for parasite control, fallowing of the sites and year class separation, with priority on stocking with robust juveniles.

Feed standards

“In the pursuit of sustainable shrimp production, feed is important,” said Michiel Fransen, Standards and Science Director, ASC. There is the importance of quantifying the footprint of feed ingredients through life cycle assessments (LCAs), focussing not only on environmental impacts but also resource management and scalability.

ASC has two types of certification programs: one for aquaculture farms and a recent certification for feed. Fransen, discussed the ASC Feed Standard, outlining sustainability challenges and principles for feed used in aquaculture, focussing on responsible ingredient sourcing and transitioning to deforestation-free supply chains. He explained the challenges encountered with feed: up to 80% of carbon footprint of aquaculture is in feed; deforestation and land conversion are the biggest drivers. Sustainability credentials of marine ingredients and feed supply chains are long and complex, making traceability difficult. Responsible sourcing of ingredients - marine and plant ingredients are included in its five principles. Fransen reflected on how the role of the supply chain has shifted from business to business towards business to consumer, with concerns on origin of supply chain and trust built in.

Controls fungi, protozoa, and pathogenic bacteria Quickly troubleshoots Red Head events Does

www.megasupply.com orders@megasupply.net

“We basically are asking that the feed miller undertakes due diligence on their ingredient sources to demonstrate low risk on key factors (legal, environmental and social).”

He added that as transparency is key, similar to the farm standard, ASC publishes on its website what the feed mill reports on water consumption and disposal, effluent discharge, energy consumption, GHG emissions and ASC feed volumes sold.

DDGS in aquafeeds

“DDGS and CFP do not compete for the same space. Regular DDGS is for lower protein feed of less than 33% crude protein and CFP for higher protein feeds of more than 33%CP,” said Tan. The strengths of DDGS in aquafeeds include the protein component, energy, available phosphorous, yeast, beta-glucans and xanthophyll, and for CFPs, the highly digestible amino acids. (Table 1).

Shrimp feed 32-40%CP Tilapia feed 28-32%CP Pangasius feed 26-28%CP Marine Fish feed 40-50%CP DDGS Indonesia Thailand Vietnam

Table 1. Opportunities for DDGS for freshwater fish and shrimp and CFP for marine fish & shrimp in Asia. Source: Ronnie Tan, 2024.

Turkey produced 876,000 tonnes of feeds for an aquaculture production of 575,000 tonnes. But with prices of fish feed increasing and volatility in the soy market, Professor Deniz Coban, Agriculture Faculty, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Turkey, has conducted laboratory trials with DDGS, adding it in feeds at three inclusion rates, 10%, 20% and 30%.

He concluded that feed conversion ratio (FCR) was lower, weight gain and specific growth rate (SGR) were higher in the 20% inclusion group. It was observed that the use of DDGS up to 30% in rainbow trout feeds had no negative effect on skin and fillet colour. Digestibility trials also showed no negative effect on digestibility rates. It was observed that the feed cost decreased significantly due to the increase in DDGS protein source in the trial feeds.

CFP in aquafeeds

For Dr Kevin Herrick, Director of Nutritional Technical Services, POET Bioproducts, USA, CFP represents the next evolution of the distiller’s industry. Its nutrient profile makes it ideal for aquaculture formulations and provides an alternative ingredient in most formulations but there are still a lot more to learn on the benefits. Using the AquaOp formulation software which captures requirements for regional species and ingredient specifics, CFP replaced some soybean meal and wheat gluten meal with 3.1% reduction in feed costs in a formulation for steelhead trout in Turkey. It replaced some soybean meal, gluten meal, and blood meal with a 2.7% reduction in feed costs, in a formulation for gilthead bream. A formulation for the

The panel discussion on demand and supply was led by Caleb Wurth, USGC Southeast Asia and Oceana Regional Director (right). Panellist were, Ragnar Nystøyl, Kontali; Ronnie Tan, USGC; Kantham Papanna, India, and Novel Sharma, Rabobank.

seabass with a replacement of soy protein concentrate with CFP and added fishmeal, gave a 2.9% reduction in feed costs.

Herrick also debunked some perceptions such as effects on fillet colour. CFP has little to no effect on fillet colour at typical inclusions as shown in a 30-day digestibility study with CFP at 30% inclusion.

Positioning DDGS and CFP for sustainable aquafeeds

The growth in aquaculture feeds requires complementary feed ingredients. Fishmeal and marine ingredients will remain as strategic ingredients. The industry looks for alternative ingredients with availability, price and sustainability attributes. DDGS and CFP meet all the criteria.

US corn and its co-products can support the aquaculture industry by augmenting the availability of feed ingredients to enhance the performance of aquaculture feeds and its credibility in terms of sustainability indicators. “DDGS is extracted from ethanol and has been approaching the issue of circularity for a long time,” said Saurez as he outlined US corn production practices. “Corn is produced in the

US, where farmers have been improving a series of sustainable production practices.” Land and water use was less, GHG emissions (pounds of CO2 per bushel) reduced by 48% and energy use (BTU per bushel) by 54.6%. The corn used in that process also has reduced environmental impact The goals towards 2030 are to reduce GHG emissions by 13% and irrigation water use by 15%.

The panel discussion on aquafeeds and nutrition was led by Mohamed Salah Bouthour, USGC Regional Deputy Director for Africa (left). Panellists from right, Deniz Coban, Aydın Adnan Menderes University; Michiel Fransen, ASC; Brett Glencross, IFFO; Carlos Suarez, USGC and Kevin Herrick, POET Bioproducts.

Succession implementation

The route of Delta Marine from trading to shrimp farming and passing the baton

By Zuridah Merican

The Darmawans are leading one of Indonesia’s largest shrimp aquaculture companies, Delta Marine Group. It was founded by Soedarman and Anita in 1986. The second generation is making waves. While Rizky manages all aquaculture operations and business development for PT Delta Marine Indonesia (DMI) and associated farms, Cynthia runs the group’s trading and business operations. Anita is group CFO and Soedarman, is Chairman. The group headquarters is in Sidoarjo, East Jawa.

The path of DMI is synonymous with Indonesia’s farmed shrimp industry which started with the black tiger shrimp in the early 1980s. Intensification of shrimp farming then led to a rapid production increase. Production declined following outbreaks of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) and the recovery in production to around 300,000 tonnes in 2023 came with a change to vannamei shrimp since 2012.

Today, while the pioneering cohorts of shrimp farmers are leaving the industry, the next generation is taking over. However, with DMI, the story is also a succession plan for a long-term tenure in shrimp farming. Post Shrimp Aquaculture Conference (SAC), held recently in Bali in June, I met up with the family for this article.

How did the Delta Marine Group come about?

Soedarman: We are natives of Sidoarjo which is situated at a ‘delta’ and so we named the company CV Delta Marine. In 1980s, Anita and I started seafood trading. At that time, around Sidaorjo, it was traditional farms producing only black tiger shrimp. In 1986, I had the interest to venture into shrimp farming after trading shrimp from the intensive farms around Banyuwangi in East Jawa. During those days, shrimp farming was very profitable and so I was very keen to enter this industry.

Much later, I started to buy land for shrimp farming under CV Delta Marine in several locations across Indonesia. In 2007, I saw how crowded the shrimp farming activity was on the main island, Jawa and so, went eastwards to Sumbawa in West Nusa Tenggara where farming conditions are so much

better than around East Jawa. We now have a landbank of 400ha mainly in Sumbawa, but also in Madura, East Jawa, and Belitung.

I started with 27 traditional (earthen) ponds in 2008 and now we have 76 ponds, all of them lined or concrete, in the farm in Sumbawa. Additionally, we have 18 small ponds to run trials. These are of various sizes, from 5,000m2 to smaller ones of 314m2. Rizky wanted to try out round tank systems and raceways.

Rizky: It took me quite some time to convince my father to try out shrimp farming in round tanks and today, we are doing very well with our 16 tanks. Later, I had to do more convincing to allow me to test out shrimp farming in raceway systems. I have many ideas on shrimp culture models. I believe that one must try to develop technology and change for the better.

Soedarman: Whatever works and is the best in terms of productivity, we will accept and change. Anita is happy with this arrangement as she believes that if one must do something, one must be responsible and willing to put in the effort.

Pulling in Rizky and Cynthia

Soedarman: Basically, both Anita and I are traders, and we knew very little about shrimp farming. We kept to semiintensive farming and had to employ technicians to run the farm. I did not plan for Rizky to join the business. He went to the US to study computer science and then suddenly he changed his course to fisheries science! We also sent them to China to learn Mandarin because we saw the rise of the Chinese economy and thought that it would be a good skill for them to have.

Rizky: When my father asked me to take over the farm, I had to live there for three months and learn farming from the farm manager and technicians. My father has been focussing on the trading business and left the running of the farm to the manager. It was not easy for a young man used to city living. But then, for me, my family is already involved in this business. Why start from zero, it is much easier to continue something that is already there. This is a wonderful gift.

A learning curve for father and son

Rizky: When I started in 2014, the farm was already profitable. Shrimp prices were at their highs. However, profits were less than what we are now achieving, although prices are at their lowest today. We tried several ways to improve but nothing worked. Production was around 300 tonnes per cycle. I took over and asked Joseph Santoso, an old high school friend, to join me.

PT Delta Marine farm in Sumbawa. See pages 8-12.

Together, all four of us are constantly learning farm management. I taught my parents to trust me. One time, while on site, I saw in one block, that shrimp in the feed trays were dying. I told my parents: we need to harvest quickly. But they asked me to try to fix the problem based on what the technicians had suggested. In the end, we lost the crop and a lot of money for that block. Fortunately, we were still profitable as it happened in one block only. Subsequently, my parents asked me to decide and use my best judgement if there are any similar cases in the future.

What helped me was the comradery of young shrimp farmers when we formed Petambak Muda Indonesia (PMI or Young Shrimp Farmers). The initial group of 4 young shrimp farmers grew to 20 and then more. We exchanged notes and helped each other in solving issues. For some, the learning came from their farmer fathers while others were new entrepreneurs, first timers in the shrimp business but were hands-on like me.

Soedarman: At our recent cycle, we consecutively broke records. We have managed to develop our own farming methods and have reached our targets. Previously, this site was an example of a good location, good water quality but poor farm management. We have now turned it around. We partly applied the new system and reached 560 tonnes for that cycle. We finally applied it in all of our ponds the next cycle and produced 730 tonnes. Right now, we are currently on our third cycle with the system, and it is looking like we are going to break that record.

Young gen versus old school ideas

How is it being part of the younger generation in an industry dominated by the first gen farmers?

Rizky: Being part of a family business has its unique stories. Mine was how feedmillers, refused to communicate

with me. They preferred to talk to my parents, although knowing that I oversee total operations which include feed purchases. On the other hand, I am happy that the second generation has taken over, as we easily communicate with each other. I am also pleased that a major feed miller prefers to communicate with us young farmers to better understand the field situation. To me, this is how we can grow the industry in Indonesia, by being open and willing to share. We do not gain by not sharing!

Cynthia: My story is about the trading side. Farmers will call me to ask my opinions on the current market situation and prices, i.e., whether the market is going up or down. I would spend some time giving them my take on the situation. But when it comes to the actual business of buying their shrimp harvest, they will refuse to take my calls, preferring to talk only to either of my parents.

Community involvement

In Indonesia, shrimp farms provide jobs for local communities. This is a strong social element. Where is Delta Marine with regards to corporate social responsibility or CSR?

Rizky: Although DMI does not have an organised CSR program, we are very integrated with the local communities at this site. Some staff have their complete families on site. However, whenever the community needs something, it will approach us for some contributions like for building a mosque and rebuilding a damaged house. As we expand downstream, and do our own marketing, we will need to develop a CSR program and create a positive vibe for consumers. We know we can do more.

The Darmawans are leading one of Indonesia’s largest shrimp aquaculture companies, Delta Marine Group. Soedarman and Anita, started with seafood trading. The succession plan has Rizky as CEO and Cynthia as COO.

Soedarman: This is not part of any CSR, but we use the farm site in Sumbawa as a training centre for shrimp farming. Our hope is that they can be future technicians and farm attendants.

Integration

Soedarman: We all concur that we will not enter the feed milling business. As a large feed user, we benefit from very good feed prices, provided we continue to buy big volumes. This is a good decision; imagine the risk we must assume with feed milling, amidst this uncertainty with ingredient prices.

Rizky: We did muse on having a hatchery, but in the end, we decided just to be a shareholder if we enter that segment, rather than run a hatchery ourselves. There are around 30 hatcheries in Indonesia, the closest we use are in Sumbawa about 2 hours away and up to Bali, which is around 20 hours away.

We know that when we operate a hatchery and produce good post larvae, we can sell in the open market. But if we fail and produce poor quality post larvae, we might be forced to use it in our farms to mitigate loss. It’s a loselose situation. Therefore, as shareholder, we get preferred treatment - option of quality post larvae for our farms and some control on quality.

The group has a processing plant with a capacity of 1015 tonnes shrimp/day in Gresik. This has been leased out. Integration in processing is in the works but we have no expertise in processing. Another problem is getting skilled labour. A processing plant for our new site in Sumbawa is planned to be up and running within 3 years.

Soedarman: We know that we need to maintain quality and so we need to have control on post-harvest processing. Sumbawa is 40 hours away and so we will need to have freezing capacity.

“ I see environmental sustainability as a long-term vision of any shrimp farming business. It is what we need to secure for the industry for future generations, for my daughters and their children.” - Rizky

How important is sustainability for you?

Rizky: We start with economic sustainability. If the business is not profitable, we will all close our farms. Social sustainability is second, as with all shrimp farms, DMI exists to give local communities work opportunities. I see environmental sustainability as a long-term vision of any shrimp farming business. It is what we need to secure for the industry for future generations, for my daughters and their children.

As part of meeting the sustainability agenda via certification, we have designed another farm in Sumbawa ready for Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification. The farm will begin stocking in July. What is holding us back with ASC audits is the cost of certification. We accept that certification does not guarantee premiums, but just gives us a ‘licence to sell’. However, all these will change when we integrate a processing plant and carry out our own marketing. In the future, with many sites in operation, we may want to look at marketing our own sustainability efforts to consumers.

“ I want to leave a legacy for my children and for the future generations in shrimp farming.” - Soedarman

To

be

different from other shrimp farming enterprises

Soedarman: I want to leave a legacy for my children and for the future generations in shrimp farming. I am focussed on training the next generation in shrimp farming. We employ the high performing trainees to manage our new farms. What is the point of planning and starting new farms and then struggle to find good workers?

Today, we have two farms in operation in Sumbawa, Delta Marine in Labuan Mapin (DMI) and Arca Aquaculture, in Tambora. Our new JV, PT Mitradelta Bahari Pratama’s farm will soon start operations. The farm is in another part of Sumbawa, east of Tambora. We also plan to go over to Sulawesi. There is another 50ha in Belitung. My ambition is to have 600-700 ponds in 2-3 years.

However, we are building up farms one after another, as we go through a learning curve. We may focus on the large areas in Sumbawa with 7-10 farms. All the while, we learn to adapt each farm to the environment and local community. I would like to see PT Delta Marine be a corporation led by Rizky and Cynthia.

My concern is with the US antidumping tariffs (AD) for Indonesia.Without this AD, farmgate prices for size 30/kg have dropped up to IDR65,000/kg. We are still profitable since our cost of production is around IDR35,000/kg. However, we are afraid that this case will further drop the farmgate price even lower. Regardless, we don’t have any control on price, so we just focus on having stable production in our farms.

The expansion plans are all in farming and will take more than 5 years to build. We have to expand slowly as in Indonesia, there is no support from banks for shrimp farming. Therefore, we are also looking at investors to speed up the process. PT Mitradelta Bahari Pratama, is a mining company and with their expertise and connections, we are hoping to find a way to tap into bank funds.

The power of mannan rich fraction to address parasitic disease challenges

The production method determines the mannan oligosaccharides’ prebiotic activity, immunestimulatory effects, and pathogen-binding capabilities

By Yufan Zhang and Henry Wong

Aquaculture has become a critical component of global food production. As the demand for seafood rises, ensuring the health and growth of farmed aqua animals is paramount. One of the essential factors in achieving this is the quality of feed used in aquaculture. Among various feed additives, mannan oligosaccharides (MOS) have garnered significant attention for their beneficial effects on the health and performance of farmed fish and shrimp.

This article delves into the transformative potential of next generation of MOS, highlighting their roles in enhancing aquaculture feed and their practical applications in the battle against the notorious parasite Ichthyophthirius multifiliis

Understanding mannan oligosaccharides

Mannan oligosaccharides are prebiotic compounds derived from the cell walls of yeast, particularly Saccharomyces cerevisiae . They have been extensively studied for their ability to enhance gut health, boost the immune system, and improve the overall growth performance of aquatic animals.

The ways in which MOS benefits aquatic animals are both intricate and diverse. In terms of immune modulation, MOS can recognise toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) on the surface of macrophages and promote mRNA transcription of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF- α ) through a series of signalling pathways.

Finally, MOS increase the secretion of cytokines nitric oxide (NO) and TNF-α . Furthermore, MOS help to maintain gut health by influencing the structural integrity of bacterial cell walls and blocking intestinal binding sites, thus preventing harmful microbes from colonising the gut. This action is particularly effective against pathogens such as Salmonella, Vibrio parahaemolyticus and E. coli , ensuring a healthier and more resilient aquaculture environment.

Production methods for MOS

The effectiveness of MOS in aquaculture feed is not solely dependent on their concentration but also on the production method. This involves several stages, including the selection of yeast strains, fermentation processes, and extraction techniques. Each stage can significantly impact the final product’s quality and functionality.

Different strains of S. cerevisiae can produce varying amounts and structures of MOS. Some strains are more efficient in synthesising mannose-rich polysaccharides, while others may create more unwanted by-products. The choice of yeast strain can influence the molecular weight, degree of polymerisation, and mannose content of the MOS. These factors are crucial as they determine the MOS’s prebiotic activity, immune-stimulatory effects, and pathogen-binding capabilities.

Once the yeast strain is selected, the fermentation process begins. The conditions under which fermentation is carried out—such as temperature, pH, nutrient availability, and aeration—can significantly affect the yield and quality of MOS. Variations in fermentation conditions can lead to differences in the composition and structure of MOS. For instance, aerobic fermentation might result in a different mannose-to-glucose ratio than anaerobic fermentation. These differences can influence MOS’s prebiotic and immunomodulatory functions in aquaculture feed.

After fermentation, extracting MOS from yeast cell walls is the next step. The extraction method used can have a profound impact on the purity and functionality of MOS. Standard extraction techniques include chemical extraction and enzymatic hydrolysis. Chemical extraction methods, such as acid or alkali treatment, can effectively release MOS from yeast cells but may also result in the formation of unwanted by-products and degradation of bioactive compounds. In contrast, enzymatic hydrolysis uses specific enzymes to break down yeast cell walls, producing high-purity MOS with minimal degradation of bioactive compounds.

Impact of production methods on functionality

The various production methods described above can influence the functionality of MOS in aquaculture feed in several ways, including molecular weight, degree of polymerisation, and molecular structure.

MOS with a higher degree of polymerisation are generally more effective in stimulating the immune system. This is because these MOS structures are more likely to interact with immune receptors on the surface of immune cells. One of the critical functions of MOS is their ability to bind pathogenic bacteria and prevent them from adhering to the intestine. This mechanism, known as agglutination, reduces the colonisation of pathogens and lowers the risk of infections in aquaculture species. The effectiveness of MOS in pathogen binding is influenced by their mannose structure. MOS with specific structural configurations are more effective in binding to the lectins on the surface of pathogenic bacteria. Production methods that optimise the mannose content with the specific structure of MOS can thus enhance their pathogen-binding capabilities.

A new generation of MOS

Mannan Rich Fraction (MRF) is a cutting-edge, secondgeneration MOS product developed using Alltech’s advanced nutrigenomic tools. By meticulously screening yeast cell fractions and investigating their benefits on host intestinal tissue, Alltech has created a more bioactive feed additive. This innovative product can be included in diets at lower rates while still delivering improved zootechnical performance, even under challenging field conditions.

Figure 2. The infection rate and survival rate after challenge with Ichthyophthirius multifiliis

Control-inf cMOS-inf

Figure 2. The infec1on rate and survival rate aWer challenge with Ichthyophthirius mul/filiis.

Figure 2. The infec1on rate and survival rate aWer challenge with Ichthyophthirius mul/filiis.

Practical applications in aquaculture

control group, demonstrated the occurrence of trophont (white dotted circle, black arrows) while gill in the MOS group showed almost no trophont (Figure 1).

Compared with the control goldfish gill lamellae, the gill lamellae of goldfish fed with M RF (cMOS) increased in length and respiratory area (Figure 3).

Compared with the control goldfish gill lamellae, the gill lamellae of goldfish fed with M RF (cMOS) increased in length and respiratory area (Figure 3).

The benefits of MOS in aquaculture feed are welldocumented, with numerous studies demonstrating their positive effects on the growth, health, and survival of various aquaculture species. Recently, an experiment involving the application of MRF in aquafeed was conducted. The results not only confirmed the findings of previous studies but also provided new insights into the effects and mechanisms of MRF, demonstrating its potential to improve disease resistance and overall performance in aquaculture species.

The remarkably lower infection rate and mortality of goldfish fed with MOS accounted for the fact that MRF could effectively prevent the I. multifiliis from invading the skin and gill and had a specific protective effect on goldfish (Figure 2).

Figure 2. The infec1on rate and survival rate aWer challenge with Ichthyophthirius mul/filiis.

Ich or Ichthyophthirius multifiliis is a visible protozoan with extremely low host specificity that causes white spot disease of teleost fishes worldwide and mainly parasitises the skin, gill, and fin. In an 8-week growth experiment and a 2-week challenge, we investigated the infection mechanism of I. multifilis and the effect of MRF in feed on the resistance of goldfish to the infection.

After the infection test, visible white spots (black arrows) and abundant mucus (red arrows) appeared on the surface of the goldfish. Local amplification of gill in the

Compared with the control goldfish gill lamellae, the gill lamellae of goldfish fed with MRF (cMOS) increased in length and respiratory area (Figure 3).

Compared with the control goldfish gill lamellae, the gill lamellae of goldfish fed with M RF (cMOS) increased in length and respiratory area (Figure 3).

Figure 3. HE staining results, gill lamellae length of goldfish in the control group and MRF (cMOS) group aWer 60 days feeding trial.

Figure 3. HE staining results, gill lamellae length of goldfish in the control group and MRF (cMOS) group aWer 60 days feeding trial.

Figure 3 HE staining results, gill lamellae length of goldfish in the control group and MRF (cMOS) group aWer 60 days feeding trial.

Figure 3. HE staining results, gill lamellae length of goldfish in the control group and MRF (cMOS) group after 60 days feeding trial.

3 HE staining results, gill lamellae length of goldfish in the control group and MRF (cMOS) group aWer 60 days feeding trial.

group increased remarkably with significantly MRF (c

group.

Figure 4. Expression of immune-related genes in skin and gill of goldfish in the control group.

Figure 5. The potential mechanism of MRF (cMOS) supports goldfish gill against Ichthyophthirius multifiliis infection.

support phagocytosis by binding to MRC on the macrophage cell membrane and change the nonspecific immunity of goldfish by stimulating cytokine expression. All these functions are closely related to the complex molecular structure of MRF and the precise control of its production process.

Conclusion

The poten1al mechanism of MRF (cMOS) supports goldfish gill against Ichthyophthirius mul/filiis infec1on.

that MRF can influence goldfish phagocytosis and non-specific . AWer the Ich challenge, transcriptome analysis revealed that MRF-fed goldfish displayed a higher level of phagocy1c response, whereas non-MRF-fed goldfish greater inflammatory reac1on. Besides, aWer Ich infec1on, MRF-fed goldfish displayed greater phagocytosis ac1vity, a stronger MRC posi1ve signal, higher expression genes associated with phagocytosis, and lower expression of genes associated with inflamma1on. These results suggested that MRF can support phagocytosis by binding to

Figure 5. The poten1al mechanism of MRF (cMOS) supports goldfish gill against Ichthyophthirius mul/filiis infec1on.

After 14 days of I. multifiliis challenge , mucin-2 in the skin and gill of the MRF (cMOS-inf) group increased remarkably with a significant difference from controlinf group. Besides, significantly lower expression of the proinflammatory factor IL-1 β could be observed in the MRF (cMOS-inf) group (Figure 4).

MRF is a powerful tool to enhance the health and performance of aquaculture species. While the production methods are important, what truly matters is selecting highquality MRF with proven efficacy. With the right technology and production techniques, MRF can significantly boost prebiotic activity, stimulate immune responses, and bind pathogens, helping the aquaculture industry combat diseases such as parasitic and bacterial infections. As the industry continues to grow, incorporating advanced MRF products will be essential in promoting sustainable and efficient aquaculture practices, while ensuring healthier and more resilient aquatic animal production.

Our research indicated that MRF can influence goldfish phagocytosis and non -specific immunity (Figure 5). AWer the Ich challenge, transcriptome analysis revealed that MRF-fed goldfish displayed a higher level of phagocy1c response, whereas non-MRF-fed goldfish displayed a greater inflammatory reac1on. Besides, aWer Ich infec1on, MRF-fed goldfish displayed greater phagocytosis ac1vity, a stronger MRC posi1ve signal, higher expression of genes associated with phagocytosis, and lower expression of genes associated with inflamma1on. These results suggested that MRF can support phagocytosis by binding to

Our research indicated that MRF can influence goldfish phagocytosis and non-specific immunity (Figure 5). After the Ich challenge, transcriptome analysis revealed that MRF-fed goldfish displayed a higher level of phagocytic response, whereas non-MRF-fed goldfish displayed a greater inflammatory reaction. Besides, after Ich infection, MRF-fed goldfish displayed greater phagocytosis activity, a stronger MRC positive signal, higher expression of genes associated with phagocytosis, and lower expression of genes associated with inflammation. These results suggested that MRF can

Dr Yufan Zhang is China Aqua BD Manager & SE Asia Technical Manager for Alltech and is also Technical Manager for Southeast Asia. Email: Yufan.Zhang@alltech.com

Dr Henry Wong is Commercial Development Director, Asia Aquaculture, Alltech. Email: hwong@alltech.com

Figure

Figure 4 Expression of immune-related genes in skin and gill of goldfish in the control group.

Figure 4. Expression of immune-related genes in skin and gill of goldfish in the control

reduce this inflammation and support microbiota

increase gut microvilli length and height, improving protein and fiber digestibility

optimise g and immune capabilities for overall better health

Could gut health drive outstanding animal performance and profitabilit y ?

The skin, gut and gills play a vital role in protecting the animal against potentially harmful environmental effects.

The gut is a complex system of tissues and organs that plays an essential role in all interactions related to several functions, including:

- Food digestion and absorption

- Metabolism and energy production

- Defense mechanisms

- Immune response

Scan this QR Code to get more information about Gut Health Solutions for Aquaculture

Harmonising sustainability with profitable fish and shrimp farming

The Sustainable Seafood Event by Adisseo looks at managing health and feed efficiency for better productivity

Alongside the annual Seafood Expo Global 2024 in Barcelona, Spain, Adisseo’s aquaculture team organised a by-invitation conference on April 22. This “Sustainable Seafood Event by Adisseo” was specially curated for more than 50 customers and partners from 18 countries, including China, India, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Georgia and Europe.

Supply: Ecuador versus India

Harmonising sustainability with profitable fish and shrimp farming

While supply will remain status quo for Asian producers, a 13-14% increase in production from Ecuador is expected. Large players with processing capabilities dominate in Ecuador and with ‘technification’ can easily expand production. In contrast, India’s industry is dominated by small players.

The Sustainable Seafood Event by Adisseo looks at managing health and feed efficiency for be?er produc@vity

Global Aquaculture Outlook 2024: Is there a new normal?

In his overview on recent demand and supply of salmon and shrimp, Novel Sharma, Analyst Seafood and Aquaculture, Rabobank, The Netherlands, said that the dire situation with farmed shrimp is that prices remained low despite an all-time high in consumption. In contrast, Norwegian salmon did well in 2023 with average prices at NOK97/kg as compared to NOK82/kg in 2022. In 2024, Rabobank expects European salmon prices to remain at elevated levels in H1 before declining in H2 as supply improves.

“In India, the biggest challenge is failure rates as well as frequent brown outs. The positive aspect is that stocking density is low but does not break biological boundaries, ” said Sharma.

Alongside the annual Seafood Expo Global 2024 in Barcelona, Spain, Adisseo’s aquaculture team organised a by-invitaCon conference on April 22. This “Sustainable Seafood Event by Adisseo” was specially curated for more than 50 customers and partners from 18 countries, including China, India, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Georgia and Europe. PresentaCons covered a range of subjects starCng with views from Rabobank on global demand and supply of farmed shrimp and salmon, producCon of sustainable aquafeed, to how to manage health and improve feed efficiency.

“Despite costs of logistics, we see 65% of Ecuadorian shrimp, the majority as HOSO, going to China while India supplies peeled shrimp to the US. When China’s demand decreases, we can expect that Ecuador can quickly pivot to other products and markets like the US as it did during the recent pandemic.”

Outlook for 2024

Global Aquaculture Outlook 2024: Is there a new normal?

In shrimp markets, in 2022, post Covid-19, there was high inventory with low demand and from H2, China reverted to be the leading shrimp market. It imported close to a million tonnes of shrimp despite a more than 800,000 tonnes of domestic production. Post Chinese New Year, demand was down again. Consumption is clearly segregated; imported shrimp are frozen and domestic shrimp are fresh chilledthe latter commanding a slight premium.

In his overview on recent demand and supply of salmon and shrimp, Novel Sharma, Analyst Seafood and Aquaculture, Rabobank, The Netherlands, said that the dire situaCon with farmed shrimp is that prices remained low despite an all-Cme high in consumpCon In contrast, Norwegian salmon did well in 2023 with average prices at NOK97/kg as compared to NOK82/kg in 2022. In 2024, Rabobank expects European salmon prices to remain at elevated levels in H1 before declining in H2 as supply improves.

In 2024, Ecuador will show good growth but a slowdown in expansion is expected due to adverse profitability. In shrimp markets, the low prices will continue as supply is not expected to contract soon. The markets in the US, EU, Japan and South Korea are gradually indicating growth.

Lastly, he discussed some effects of El Niño, such as the 2.48 million tonnes Peruvian fishing quota. “’The correction in fishmeal supply should help reduce input costs, especially for salmon. Soy prices will come down, but an extra burden is the EU deforestation law, effective from January 2025.”

In shrimp markets, in 2022, post Covid-19, there was high inventory with low demand and from H2, China reverted to be the leading shrimp market. It imported close to a million tonnes of shrimp despite a more than 800,000 tonnes of domesCc producCon. Post Chinese New Year, demand was down again ConsumpCon is clearly segregated; imported shrimp are frozen and domesCc shrimp are fresh chilled - the la_er commanding a slight premium.

Sharma described a Rabobank shrimp index comparing vannamei shrimp prices versus selected US proteins. “In the US, shrimp is very cheap in the seafood basket but why is demand not going up? The reason is, because at the retail level, prices have not come down enough to push consumption. There is optimism that demand will come back in the US and EU, but perhaps not at the level that industry wishes. In China, the macroeconomics situation is not favourable at the moment for the population to spend on shrimp.”

Shrimp industry Asia 2024: Production outlook

The shrimp panel at the Global Seafood Market Conference (GSMC 2024) estimated a supply of 5.1 million tonnes vannamei shrimp in 2024. This is 4.5% more than in 2023, and mainly from China (+20%), Ecuador (+12%) and Brazil (+20%). It does not expect more shrimp from Vietnam and other Asian countries.

Figure 1. Shrimp at wholesale has been relaCvely cheap for 3 years. Source: Rabobank.

Figure 1. Shrimp at wholesale has been relatively cheap for 3 years. Source: Rabobank.

Dr Prakan Chiarahkhongman, Vice President and Aquatic Animal Health Care Products Specialist & Solutions Provider at Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group Advance Pharma), Thailand, said, “In 2024, we see a continuous fall in prices such as in week 15 when shrimp prices (size 60/ kg, Guangdong China) dropped 4.3% from week 14. While imports to the US rose by around 20%, prices were down 5.45%. In the Chinese market, the average price of shrimp imports from Ecuador in the first two months of the year dropped to a historic low at USD4.36/kg, according to data from Chinese Customs.

“Imports from Ecuador dropped notably during the first two months of the year, in part because China increased port inspections of Ecuadorian shrimp, using regulations on

HEALTH IS AT THE HEART OF OUR CONCERNS

The APAC and India Adisseo team, from right, Vilas Autade, Regional Manager - Aquaculture (Commercial) South Asia, Martin Guerin, Dr Ei Lin Ooi, Regional Manager Aquaculture APAC, Martha Mamora with Prakan Chiarahkhongman and Allen Wu, Vice President, Gold Coin Holdings, Singapore

labelling and sulphite residues. The oversupply situation and low prices, coupled with recent antidumping and countervailing investigations added to the key challenges for industry in Asia.”

Eco-friendly farming

Linking stocking density to nitrogen (N) output, a 2022 study estimated N effluent from 830ha shrimp culture ponds in some countries in Asia in 2022 over days of culture (DOC) 5-120 at a stocking density of 25PL/m3. Volumes were high and reached 281ppm N in the water resources over DOC 100-120. Then, outbreaks of Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) are indicative of the spread of spores from contaminated shared water resources and drained

BOOST YOUR BUSINESS BY OPTIMIZING YOUR HEALTH ADDITIVE STRATEGY

RESTRICT inappropriate use of antibiotics and chemicals

REDUCE losses from subclinical disease and outbreaks

INCREASE economical and ecological sustainability

BOOST feed perfomance and farm productivity

into ponds in the vicinity. This pointed to the need for effluent treatment ponds (ETP). Sludge removal ponds are necessary with heavy water exchange. Often implemented are shrimp toilet systems.

In the case of protein in the feed, Prakan said from a 3045% crude protein diet, the shrimp retains only 15-18% of dry weight of protein in the body. The rest is for daily metabolism. Excessive N from feeds leaches into the water. Excessive ammonia and nitrite are increasingly linked to phagocytosis activity suppression, resulting in an immuno-compromised host followed by various types of diseases.

Manipulating microbiome for gut health

Prakan discussed how the ratio of Rhodobacteraceae/ Vibrionaceae (R/V) in gut microbiome was studied and used to reflect shrimp health. The study showed that more Rhodobacteraceae (60.1% R/V ratio 26/2 ~ 13/1) was found in healthy shrimp while more Vibrionaceae (94.8% , R/V ratio 9/5 ~ 1.8/1) was associated with diseased shrimp.

Using metagenomics to study the microbiome in early life stages of shrimp (Figure 2), Prakan reported, “We know that at the zoea 3 stage, mouth opening is a critical period; Vibrio from water enter the gut and disrupt the ratio of microbial diversity. In a CPF R&D survey of >500 culture ponds, we saw a decrease in R/V ratio, related to white faeces disease (WFD). When the R/V ratio was high there was high survival and excellent growth. Typically, when the optimum R/V ratio was above 4/1 – 8/1, survival rate was ~85%. When the R/V ratio was less than 4/1 – 2/1,

Figure 2. Study of microbiome and microbial population throughout the culture stage to predict the health status of vannamei shrimp. Adapted from: CPF In- house technical research and development 2023 and Yanting Wang , Kai Wang, Lei Huang 2020. Copyright@CPF

“The control and balancing of the microbial loads of friendly and pathogenic microbes in the water and shrimp are crucial. An understanding on the application of suitable bioaugmentation and probiotics together with the best management practices and holistic approaches are always recommended,” said Prakan.

Health

strategies for higher productivity

Prior to developing health strategies, it is critical to know the environment and farm situation, according to Dr Maria Mercè Isern-Subich, Global Product Manager Aquaculture Health. In-house data from an active surveillance of five shrimp farms in Indonesia, showed the prevalence of diseases throughout the culture cycle; acute hepatopenaei necrosis disease (AHPND), EHP, WFD, infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV) and Vibrosis (Figure 3).

In collaboration with partners, surveillance in nine tilapia farming areas surveyed in Brazil showed presence of multiple pathogens, and the difference in their relevance is very clear. Multi-infections are a reality globally and adapting program application is key for success. IsernSubich showed different shrimp and fish in-vivo trials demonstrating the relevance of combined infections in the disease outcome. Sometimes subclinical presence will affect the health strategies to apply.

Applications comprise a corrective on-farm strategy which starts once a disease/outbreak is detected and preventive in-feed which starts before the outbreak. Separately, members of the aquaculture team described how they customised these strategies for each farm/situation.

Bacterial pathogens

A blend of organic acids Bacti-Nil®Aqua (BNA) is used against bacterial pathogens. The blend supports gut health and its ability to control pathogen presence to non-harming levels in pangasius with subclinical disease presence and improving FCR by 20%.

In a 12-week trial with the 56.5g red tilapia stocked at 300 fish/cage in Thailand which started during the warm season (when Streptococcosis is a challenge), preventive application increased biomass by 5%, and corrective + preventive application improved biomass by 8%. Survival was 98%. Further gains in FCR and biomass were achieved with boosted doses even with the unexpected lack of disease challenge.

Figure 2. Study of microbiome and microbial populaCon throughout the culture stage to predict the health status of vannamei shrimp. Adapted from: CPF In- house technical research and development 2023 and YanCng Wang , Kai Wang, Lei Huang 2020. Copyright@CPF

Figure 3. AcCve surveillance of five farms in Bratasena, Lampung, Indonesia. Health strategies for higher producAvity

Prior to developing health strategies, it is critical to know the environment and farm situation,

Figure 3. Active surveillance of five farms in Bratasena, Lampung, Indonesia. Adisseo Aqua in house data.

In vannamei shrimp farming, while challenged with diseases, preventive strategies with BNA for extensive systems (10 PL/m2), reduced the effect of nutritional stress and optimised performance and survival with optimal ROI of 18 and ROI of 13, with different programs. In Odisha, India, over a full cycle, the additive at preventive and corrective applications was effective in delaying WFD by a week in shrimp stocked at 65 PL/m2. FCR was 1.3 as compared to 1.77 in the control and biomass almost doubled.

Multiple infections in shrimp

For Dr I-Tung Chen, R&D Project Manager, Aqua Health, health additives should provide a broad-spectrum protection, i.e. improve disease resistance. This is by supporting immuno-competency in the shrimp with improvements in villi height and gut microbiome for better gut integrity. The ultimate gain is higher final body weight and improvement in FCR.

According to Chen, the health promoting additive, Sanacore®GM can prevent microbiome dysbiosis in the gut as during an AHPND infection in the laboratory, there was sloughing of cells in the control. An in-feed preventive application helped to reduce the severity of EHP- Vibrio infections. “In Indonesian farms where WFD was detected at DOC 30-40 over the last 4 crops, the preventive application was applied from the beginning, followed by the corrective protocol when signs of

Hans Boon (left) with Dhanunjaya Goud, Devee Biologicals Pvt Ltd, India and Vilas Autade.

infection appeared. “In-feed (preventive) application primarily acts on the early stages of infection and seems to be key to recover growth and survival to pre-outbreak levels.”

Case studies in Indonesia

The challenges with shrimp disease in Indonesia vary with the farm location, history with diseases, culture density and management protocols. Martha Mamora, Area Manager Aquaculture, Indonesia stressed that with the health promoting additive, the aim is to delay and control diseases despite not stopping them.

“With current low shrimp prices, it is more critical to reduce the severity of multiple infections in farms as well as failure rates. When we see non-uniformity at PL7 stage, we confirm the disease as EHP or in PL10, abnormality in the hepatopancreas as vibriosis. Today, multi-infections are the reality-our role is to work with the farmers.”

Protein Sources

Combining a blend of ingredients to achieve the desired correct nutritional composition at the desired price and sustainability level 10-2023

She described field results with the health additive Sanacore GM in a massive trial on a preventive application with farms in Bratasena, Lampung, with a history of EHP, WFD and WSSV. “A corrective+ preventive application gave improvements of 65% in productivity and 33% in FCR at a stocking density of 100 PL/m2. In the black zone farms with history of EHP, WFD, WSSV, IMNV and AHPND in Banyuwangi and stocking 150 PL/m2, it is possible to fend off disease damage.”

Combining

A corrective strategy helped farms with a history of EHP, WFD and IMNV in Subang, West Java to recover, increase average daily growth (ADG) and improve body weight by 24.5%. In an endemic EHP area, Indokom, Lampung, early intervention with a preventive strategy helped the farm to achieve higher than target growth, zero disease outbreak and high survival at almost 80% at DOC100.

Anti-parasitic action in fish

Apex® has synergistic combinations of natural components with different properties. Its wide range of modes of action include enhancing mucus defensiveness by improving the detoxification and antimicrobial activities, as well as improving skin epithelial responses, like cornification. As explained by Chen, Apex shows improved skin health that supports anti-parasitic actions as well as resistance to different handling operations. The efficacy and dosage are dependent on disease pressure.

Sustainable aquafeed ingredients

Hans Boon, Aquaculture Experience, The Netherlands, said that technically, it is feasible to reduce fishmeal inclusion rates in aquafeeds by using more animal by products. Since the 1990s, there is a trend to reduce fishmeal. Today, salmon feed producers in Chile use considerable amounts of animal-by-products meals as compared to those in Norway where no animal-by-products are used at all. The leading salmon producer in Norway, Mowi has 70% plant meals and only 17% fishmeal in their feeds.

Boon added that in raw material selection criteria for protein sources, the focus is sustainability and price. At today’s prices, fishmeal costs around €2,000/tonne as compared to €1,000-1,200 for blood and haemoglobin meal; €1,000/tonne for poultry meal; €750-800/tonne for hydrolysed feather meal – all of which are sustainable protein sources. Feather meal has 85% crude protein and has a high organic phosphorus content. Soybean meal costs €430-500/tonne but is limited in lysine and methionine.

“In Europe, besides the regulation on non-GMO soy, there is the deforestation-free issue with soy. Now European soy is being planted. With wheat gluten, the downside is competition with human food use and availability. Some 5-10% is included in salmon feeds because of its binding properties. There is strong interest and increasing availability of other seed meal “concentrates” of rapeseed, faba beans, pea, lupin, rice, etc.”

Innovative protein sources

Among these are insect meals but Boon questions the ethics of growing one animal to feed another. Currently, prices are prohibitive at 1.5 times that of fishmeal. Availability is an issue as most companies are still at an early stage and volumes are small. Figure 4 summarises the sustainability credentials of available ingredients.

Oil sources for aquafeeds

Marine species in particular, salmonids and shrimp, require dietary sources of essential long chain highly unsaturated fatty acids (LC-HUFAs), as well as DHA and EPA. Today, fish oil costs €5,000-6,000/tonne.

“Some alternative animal oils are poultry oils, but it does not have LC-HUFAs. Krill oil faces competition with human applications. Salmon oil has in its fatty acid profile 6-8% LC HUFAs but with the intra-species recycling

regulation in aquafeed, it cannot be used to feed salmon. Salmon feeds now contain approximately 20% rapeseed oil.”

There are several algal oils in the market in liquid and dry forms. Prices are linked to the fish oil market such as the recent €10,000-12,000/tonne. Still being discussed in Europe are GMO oils. GM canola (rapeseed) and camelina+ contain12% LC-HUFAs (DHA/EPA). Norway has already approved long-chain omega-3 oil of Aquaterra fatty acids from Nuseed canola.

Nutritional strategies to protect profit margins

“There are several ways to increase feed efficiency and secure profit margins,” said Marleen Dehasque, Global Product Manager Aquaculture Nutrition. Key for lipid digestion in fish are bile acids synthesised from cholesterol in the liver. However, with low fishmeal and plant meals in feed, antinutritional factors lower bile acid concentration. The digestibility and metabolic enhancer based on bile salts, Lipogest, increases fat digestion particularly during suboptimal ambient temperature as shown with seabream in the Mediterranean with a 10.9% increase in weight and improved FCR.

“What limits replacement is the type of LPL and the level of be used to replace and have the same growth performance Aqualyso has a high degree of hydrolysis to push nutrient absorpCon.”

With the current trend of replacing fishmeal (a traditional source of cholesterol) with animal protein sources, shrimp requires an alternative source of cholesterol. Having a similar chemical structure as cholesterol, the bile salts can function as (partial) cholesterol replacement and reduce the feed cost significantly without losing performance.

Lysophospholipids as alternative to improve feed efficiency

The replacement of both lecithin and fish oil is also possible. ever. The addiCon of Aqualyso could also improve growth performance fish oil and high lecithin diets. With the assumpCon that fish esCmated a saving of USD15/tonne. Another benefit is that mesenteric fats, which indirectly may lead to be_er fillet yield

Liquid applicaAon at the feed mill liquid applicaCon is increasingly popular for cost-efficient and specialty ingredients. Ignasi Vives, Technology Manager Europe specificaCons. Adisseo is well known for its customer services liquid dosing systems. Liquid applicaCons are relevant for aquaculture lysolecithins (Aqualyso) and marine pepCdes (Pepsea®).

“The newly discovered mechanisms of action of lysophospholipids (LPL) in aquatic species now allows us to know the speed of emulsification and increasing active nutrient transport,” said Dr Waldo Nuez, Global R&D Manager Aquaculture. “Aqualyso® improves emulsification of fat in the digestive tract for a more active surface for the lipase. However, LPL specifications determine efficacy. With a high LPL:PL (phospholipids) ratio, Aqualyso improves active nutrient transport in gilthead seabream. This is not the case with deoiled lecithin (low PL:PL ratio). The higher the ratio of hydrolysis, the more nutrient transport occurs.

Figure 5. LCA analyses show how Sanacore®GM has a huge farming (kgCO2 eq/kg shrimp)

Figure 5. LCA analyses show how Sanacore®GM has a huge impact to optimise the sustainability of farming (kgCO2 eq/kg shrimp)

Beyond emulsification, we have demonstrated other mode of actions that support digestive and metabolic enhancement in species-specific applications.”

“A common source of PL is lecithin but three years ago, we saw large increases in lecithin prices and although these have come down, it is still important to see how much of dietary lecithin we can reduce to bring down feed costs. Furthermore, some feed millers would like to do away with lecithin, which is not easy to apply,“ said Martin Guerin, Regional Technical Manager Aquaculture, ISC-APAC.

The minimum requirement for phospholipids for vannamei shrimp is 0.9%, and 2% lecithin in diets meets this requirement. Today, lecithin prices are much lower at around USD1,000/tonne (depending on the country). However, a reduction of 1% will save USD10/tonne. The replacement strategy for lecithin is not easily achieved. In a 6-week trial, replacement of 1% lecithin with LPL reduced feed cost and improved growth performance.

“Phospholipids levels in the diet and type of LPL are critical to full lecithin replacement. With this taken care of, Aqualyso can be used to replace 2% lecithin without losing performance, thanks to its high degree of hydrolysis boosting nutrient absorption.”

The replacement of both lecithin and fish oil is also possible. Fish oil prices are now at their highest ever. The addition of Aqualyso could also improve growth performance to a level achieved with high fish oil and high lecithin diets. With the assumption that fish oil was USD2,000/tonne, Guerin estimated a saving of USD15/ tonne. Another benefit is that the LPL is effective in reducing mesenteric fats, which indirectly may lead to better fillet yield.

Liquid application at the feed mill

This is increasingly popular for cost-efficient and accurate inclusion of additives and specialty ingredients.

Ignasi Vives, Technology Manager Europe, discussed some equipment specifications. Adisseo is well known for its services in the design and implementation of liquid dosing systems. Liquid applications are relevant for aquafeed customers for liquid lysolecithins (Aqualyso) and marine peptides (Pepsea®).

Sustainability

The shrimp value chain has a high GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, from energy use, fishmeal in feeds and mangrove deforestation. Therefore, action is needed to move to environmentally friendly shrimp farming. “Using green energy can give 35% cost savings and solid waste management and planting trees, 20-30kg CO2 can be offset by one tree. Seaweed production from wastewater of shrimp farms can offset the GHG emission,” said Prakan.

Isern-Subich added, “While overall, there are synergies to mitigate infectious agents and other performance disruptors, we also showed the impact of Sanacore GM with reductions in kgCO2 eq/kg shrimp. This is a metrics to optimise the sustainability of farming.”

Wrapping up, Dr Peter Coutteau, Business Unit Director Aquaculture, said, “Most companies are investing into changing the carbon footprint of their supplies and their products (scope 1 and 2 impacts). However, we know that for feed additives, the real impact is at the farm level (scope 3). We need to work very closely together with all stake holders including feedmillers and farmers to harvest this impact. We need to set up tools and trials to demonstrate that aquaculture is making progress vis-àvis life cycle assessments (LCAs) but at the same time, knowing that LCAs can be variable at the farm. However, there is still a general lack of understanding of what sustainability means for the consumer. For example, while IFFO has shown that the LCA impact of fishmeal and fish oil is relatively low compared to many terrestrial ingredients, consumers still look at fishmeal and fish oil in a negative way.”

Participants from China, from left, Wei Hau Huize, Guicheng Shi (Hengseng Feed mill) with Yirong Le and Herman Heng from Adisseo, China.

Saline tilapia in Indonesia

Industry Review

The centre in Karawang is preparing to revitalise shrimp ponds in coastal areas of North Java.

Nila Sakti, a strain of tilapia developed by the Freshwater Research Centre in Sukabumi on display at Asian Pacific Aquaculture (APA 2024), Surabaya, July 3-5, 2024.

Nila Sakti, a strain of tilapia developed by the Freshwater Research Centre in Sukabumi on display at Asian Pacific Aquaculture (APA 2024), Surabaya, July 3-5, 2024.

Saline tilapia in Indonesia

In many parts of North Java, there are abandoned shrimp ponds or ponds where the productivity is way below optimal. In February 2024, Indonesia’s Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono started a program to revitalise these ponds by restocking them with saline tilapia. It is the role of the Aquaculture Production Business Service Centre or BLUPPB in Karawang, West Jawa to work on acclimatisation of the Nila Sakti, a strain of tilapia Oreochromis niloticus developed at the Freshwater Research Centre in Sukabumi, to saline conditions.

higher farmgate value than tilapia cultured in freshwater. At the Karawang centre, the aim is just to acclimatise fry and help farmers start their own hatcheries.

The centre in Karawang is preparing to revitalise shrimp ponds in coastal areas of North Java.

In many parts of North Java, there are abandoned shrimp ponds or ponds where the productivity is way below optimal. In February 2024, Indonesia’s Minister of Marine ANairs and Fisheries, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono started a program to revitalise these ponds by restocking them with saline tilapia It is the role of the Aquaculture Production Business Service Centre or BLUPPB in Karawang, West Jawa to work on acclimatisation of the Nila Sakti, a strain of tilapia Oreochromis niloticus developed at the Freshwater Research Centre in Sukabumi, to saline conditions.

20,000/kg. The cost of production for the saline tilapia is IDR24,000/kg. He claimed that the saline tilapia has firm texture and no oN flavour. Fish are fed extruded pellets from PT Suri Tani Pemuka with 32% crude protein.

At the centre’s booth during APA 2024, Indra Purwanto said that prices for saline tilapia are IDR25,000/kg (live) and IDR24,000/kg (fresh chilled) for 300g fish. For larger 300-500g fish, prices range from IDR26,000 to 27,000 for live fish and IDR26,000 for fresh chilled fish. At over 800g, live fish sells for IDR28,000/kg. In comparison, freshwater tilapia is sold at IDR18,000 to 20,000/kg. The cost of production for the saline tilapia is IDR24,000/kg. He claimed that the saline tilapia has firm texture and no off flavour. Fish are fed extruded pellets from PT Suri Tani Pemuka with 32% crude protein.

During the freshwater aquaculture session at the Asian Pacific Aquaculture conference and tradeshow, Widya Puspitasari, and colleagues from the Karawang centre, presented on the work to investigate growth and survival of saline tilapia stocked at 25 fish/m2 with diNerent initial weights over a 100- day rearing period.

The fifth generation of Nila Sakti is a result of family selection for fast growth, disease resistance and adaptability to various farming ecosystems Economically, the higher biomass and high feed conversion rate will benefit farmers and reduce the use of chemical treatments. The founder stocks for the selective breeding program came from the Sultana tilapia from Sukabumi, as well as tilapia from Kenya, Genomar in the Philippines, and Kanagawa and Ibaraki, Japan. The breeding program started in 2014 with 28 families and the generation five strain was from the crossbreeding of 35 families. This strain has been distributed to farms throughout Indonesia.

The fifth generation of Nila Sakti is a result of family selection for fast growth, disease resistance and adaptability to various farming ecosystems. Economically, the higher biomass and high feed conversion rate will benefit farmers and reduce the use of chemical treatments. The founder stocks for the selective breeding program came from the Sultana tilapia from Sukabumi, as well as tilapia from Kenya, Genomar in the Philippines, and Kanagawa and Ibaraki, Japan. The breeding program started in 2014 with 28 families and the generation five strain was from the crossbreeding of 35 families. This strain has been distributed to farms throughout Indonesia.

Acclimatisation to saline ponds

Acclimatisation to saline ponds

During the freshwater aquaculture session at the APA 2024 conference, Widya Puspitasari, and colleagues from the Karawang centre, presented on the work to investigate growth and survival of saline tilapia stocked at 25 fish/m2 with different initial weights over a 100-day rearing period.

There were three stocking sizes; <5 g, 10-20g and 20-30g. Feeding was to satiation and observations were made over a period of 100 days. Sampling was carried out every 10 days. The results showed that stocking fish with an initial weight of 20-30g provided a daily growth rate of 5.7g/day and the highest survival rate of 89.8%. The harvest size was 532g after 100 days. Feed conversion ratio was lowest with fish stocked at 20-30g size (APA 2024, Book of abstracts, was.org).

At the Karawang Centre, 2cm fry are adapted to saline conditions, from 10ppt to a maximum of 20ppt, for two weeks prior to distribution to farms. Saline tilapia has a

At the Karawang Centre, 2cm fry are adapted to saline conditions, from 10ppt to a maximum of 20ppt, for two weeks prior to distribution to farms. Saline tilapia has a higher farmgate value than tilapia cultured in freshwater. At the Karawang centre, the aim is just to acclimatise fry and help farmers start their own hatcheries.

There were three stocking sizes; <5 g, 10-20g and 2030g. Feeding was to satiation and observations were made over a period of 100 days. Sampling was carried out every 10 days. The results showed that stocking fish with an initial weight of 20-30g provided a daily growth rate of 5.7g/day and the highest survival rate of 89.8%. The harvest size was 532g after 100 days. Feed conversion ratio was lowest with fish stocked at 20-30g size (APA 2024, Book of abstracts, was.org).

tilapia farming in Karawang, West Java. A display model at BLUPPB’s booth during APA 2024 showing

ponds and facilities for saline tilapia farming in Karawang, West Java.

From strain to gain

In aquaculture, the right nutrition makes all the difference. Aquafeed can account for up to 70% of total production costs, and 80% of the environmental footprint. Our full range of aquaculture solutions and services improve water quality, maximize productivity, and optimize feed cost, reducing overall financial strain. Ready to feed your way to performance gains and healthy profits?

Full steam ahead with tilapia fry throughout Vietnam

Selection for fast-growing broodstock is leading development and fry production

Back in 2013, there was a lot of excitement in Vietnam to increase tilapia farming. Earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) had pushed for a production of 400,000 tonnes of tilapia by 2030. Tilapia would be the second freshwater fish for export, reducing the reliance on pangasius exports. It will be small compared to the leading role of the pangasius, currently with an annual production of 800,000 tonnes.

In 2016, Sheng Long Bio-Tech International, a leading aquafeed producer in Vietnam, was quick to respond to the expected demand for quality fry and fingerlings. It began to import broodstock genetically selected for fast growth and high fillet yield from China. The first trait is to satisfy farmers and the second, importers. In 2018, it expanded its hatchery in Soc Trang to supply 200 million fingerlings/year of both black and red tilapia. This is because the company sees a strong export potential for Vietnam’s tilapia (AAP, 2021).

Broodstock and fry production

All of this happens in the 8.5ha hatchery and breeding centre in Soc Trang, located within the 18ha Sheng Long research centre (AAP, 2024). Here, it is selective breeding for fast growth and colour with red tilapia founder broodstocks originally from China. “We have entered the tilapia fry market with a capacity of 100 million fry per year. In Vietnam, the red tilapia is grown in cages in tributaries in the Mekong Delta, whereas the black tilapia, in ponds,” said Chew Uik Sen, Technical Manager, adding that in 2023, it received a license to build a new hatchery to double capacity by 2024. In the works is a Thang Long Smart Tilapia model following that of the vannamei shrimp.

Chew Uik Sen, Technical Manager at the Sheng Long’s R&D Centre, Soc Trang.

Broodstock ponds and hatching trays.

“We have been doing breeding of the red tilapia over 2-3 years here in Vietnam. The main breeding trait is the fast growth of the red tilapia Oreochromis sp. In the case of the black tilapia Oreochromis niloticus, selectively bred broodstocks are imported from the Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) breeding facility in China and used directly for fry production. We started to establish Sheng Long broodstocks here in Vietnam,” said Chew.

“In the case of the red tilapia, we started with 10 broodstock from China, and at this centre, we have been working to bring down the colouration. In China, the red tilapia is very red, while in Vietnam, the preference is pink to almost white.”

Fry production

Breeding is carried out on a weekly basis, via natural spawning. In 24 hours, eggs are collected from broodstock. The larvae and fry rearing process are in three stages. The first stage is from day 1 of post hatching to day 7. Here, the survival rate is 80 to 85%. The next stage is days 8-14 when the digestive system begins to develop, and the survival rate reaches 95.5 to 97.5%. In the third phase, from day 15 to day 21, the fry is nursed until fully developed with a survival rate of 98-99.9%.

“The process is in outdoor ponds and we change the nets every seven days. We sell 21-day-old fry. Throughout this 21-day process and prior to distribution to the farmers, the team will examine fry under the microscope for pathogens and parasites. Our promise is to deliver streptococcus-free fry to farmers as well as uniform specification.”

In the case of red tilapia, the hatchery sells size 3000/ kg (0.3g) fry and farmers grow-out 25-30g fingerlings in nursery ponds for two months. These fingerlings are transported by boat to the customers’ cages for further grow-out. On average, the farmer will stock 70-85 fry/m2 in the nursery ponds. The survival rate in the nursery stage is 70 to 90%.

A team of technicians regularly visits customer fish farms and reports back on the performance of fish fry. They will also collect data on growth performance in grow-out stages, in ponds and cages. “Our red tilapia grows fast. In four to five months, they reach 700g. This is the base size and the largest, 1.5kg. The fingerlings produced by other hatcheries grow slower, at about one month behind,” said Chew.

Sheng Long bundles fry and fish feed. “We believe that for high growth performance, the fish should be fed with our feed formulated for the best performance. The crude protein ranges from 34% for the early stages to 28% for the grow-out phase. Feed conversion ratios (FCR) reported by our farmers are 0.82 to 1.03 for grow-out of size 0.25-0.3g to 25-30g harvests in ponds, and 1.56 to 1.65 for growout of size 25-30g to 700g-800g harvests in cage culture in rivers.”

Fry market

Sheng Long distributes its annual production to farms across the entire Vietnam market. The leading markets are An Giang in the Mekong Delta and Nam Dinh in the north. Currently, there is one hatchery in Soc Trang in southern Vietnam and it plans to build another in northern Vietnam.

YEAR 2023

Table 1. Distribution of fry and reported survival rate to 25-30g in 2023.

The three-stage larvae and fry-rearing occur in outdoor ponds and every seven days, the team changes the nets, identified by the colour of the nets.

Costs of production

“It is critical that our farmers have the best performance tilapia to make the best profit,” said Chew. “We estimate their cost of production at VND24,000/kg (USD0.93/kg) for size 700g harvest.”

In terms of production costs, feed costs VND18,800/ kg in 2023. The cost of red tilapia fry is VND300/fry (USD11.73/1000 fry) and for black tilapia, it is VND500/fry (USD19.56/1000 fry). Currently, the farmgate prices for the red tilapia are up to VND33,400/kg (USD1.30), while it is around VND27,000/kg (USD1.05) for the black tilapia.”

Marketing and buyback tilapia

The red tilapia is sold as chilled fish in local markets, while black tilapia is exported as whole frozen or frozen fillets. Since 2018, Sheng Long has been involved in a small way fish processing at its processing plant in Camau. It buys back tilapia and other freshwater fish from its farmers and

Clockwise, indoor holding tanks, 21-day-old fry ready for stocking in nursery ponds for 2 months before harvest and stocked into cages at size 25-30g.

the open market. However, when the contract price is lower than the current farmgate price, the farmer will sell to buyers who, in turn, will sell in the fish market. The export markets for its frozen tilapia, round whole and fillet are Europe, Japan and Malaysia.

“We only process black tilapia, while a few other factories export frozen red tilapia. Our preference is 1.2kg black tilapia, but with poor uniformity in sizes, we are limited by the, in sizes available, which range from 700g to 1.2kg. Therefore, smaller fish of 500g to 800g are sold as chilled fish in the local market. We process over 800g tilapia as whole frozen. For larger fish of 2kg, we can get 40% yield as skinless fillet,” said Anny Chau Bac Anh, GM Assistant.

References

AAP, 2024. Aquafeed R&D in Soc Trang. Aqua Culture Asia Pacific, May/June 2024. p41-42.

AAP, 2021. Tilapia in Vietnam. Aqua Culture Asia Pacific, July/ August 2021, p58.

A red tilapia cage farming business in the Mekong Delta

How demand vs supply cycles affect small-scale farmers

Vietnam intends to join the global league of tilapia producers, China, Egypt, Indonesia and the Philippines. In 2023, tilapia production was a mere 200,000 tonnes, but the government aims to reach 400,000 tonnes in 2030 from 40,000ha of ponds and 1.8 million m3 of cages (vietfishmagazine.com).

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) planned for 45-50% of the production to be exported as tilapia fillets and value-added products. There is a relatively large domestic market where the preference is live or chilled fish of 600g to 1kg, the latter size for hotpot meals (AAP, 2021).

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the country’s exports of frozen tilapia in 2023 reached more than USD6 million, while it was USD 8 million in 2022. The primary market was the European Union. Vietnamese tilapia in the US is difficult to compete with Chinese tilapia because Vietnam’s average price is much higher, even though it is on a downward trend.

A cyclic demand and supply

Like other freshwater fish, farmgate prices for the tilapia follow the cyclic demand and supply trend. On March 22, during a visit to his cages, farmer Tran Van Sieng said the farmgate price of tilapia, sadly, was only VND33,000/ kg (USD1.28), whereas the cost of production was VND39,000/kg (USD1.52). The lower price for the red tilapia was caused by competition with snakehead fish. There was also an oversupply of tilapia with new entrants in the farming business. Existing farmers have also invested in more intensive farming methods.

However, on June 18, red tilapia farmgate price rose to VND43,000/kg (USD1.69). According to Truong Song, Sales Manager, Uni President Vietnam (UPVN), this upward trend was due to a reduction in culture area to 30-40% resulting in a lower supply.

He added that in distribution channels, fish prices are higher in major cities. For example, from this farmgate price of VND43,000/kg (USD1.69), in local commune markets, it is VND60,000/kg (USD2.36) and in district markets, it rises to VND70,000/kg (USD2.75). In Ho Chi Minh City, prices reach VND80,000-90,000/kg (USD3.15-3.54) for top grade tilapia and sizes are over one kg.

Tilapia in floating cages

In the Mekong Delta, almost all of red tilapia farming are in cages. Song added that in Chau Doc in An Giang Province, which borders Cambodia, there is culture of black tilapia in cages to sell into the Cambodian market. Black tilapia is cultured in ponds in north Vietnam, stocking at low density (4-5 fish/m2). In the Mekong Delta, farmers also culture black tilapia in shrimp ponds.

The tributaries in the Mekong Delta are where most of the farming of red tilapia in floating cages is located. There are 2,000 cages in the Tien River, Binh Thanh Island, Dong Thap province. Sieng, is also a feed distributor for UPVN and distributes feeds to 100-120 of these cages. Sieng himself has 10 cages. In Vietnam, it is not unusual for a farmer to be a feed distributor and vice versa.

Sieng said, “I stock mixed-sex tilapia since I found out that the growth rate of monosex tilapia reared by another farmer has low survival. The survival in my cages is around 5060%, but with monosex tilapia, it is very low at 30%.”

Song explained that monosex tilapia grows faster and has a shorter culture period by a month, which means that in 5 months fish reach harvest sizes. In contrast, mixed sex black or red tilapia takes 6-7 months. The shorter cycle is an advantage when fish prices are high, and the farmer can harvest quickly. However, when fish prices are low, farmers tend to keep fish in cages longer to wait for higher prices.

Red tilapia fry comes from a land-based hatchery in Tien Giang. A group of independent farmers pool to buy fry and nurse them over 2-3 months to fingerlings of size 4050/kg or 20-25g/fish for stocking. Sieng buys fingerlings from this group to stock into his cages.

UPVN markets tilapia feeds containing 35% to 27% crude protein for red and black tilapia, starting for fish sizes of 5-15g to a harvest size of 600g and more. Feed costs VND18,200/kg (USD0.71) for 30% crude protein feed. The recommended feeding rate is 3-4 times per day for the early stages and 2-3 times per day for larger sizes.

When his feed conversion ratio (FCR) is 1.8-1.9 and sometimes goes up to 2, Sieng says that his production cost is higher than the farmgate price for his tilapia. However, Sieng believes that the high FCR has to do with weather conditions. Hot weather affects fish appetite. Song explained that the most favourable weather conditions for tilapia farming in Dong Thap is from May to October when the water flow is fast and dissolved oxygen (DO) levels are higher. FCR is 1.6-1.7 and with monosex tilapia, FCR is better at 1.5 and survival rate high at 60-70%. From November to May, the water flow is low coupled with low DO levels. This is when FCRs are poor and survival rates are low at 50-60%.

There are also disease challenges. Farmers term these as red gill and red gut disease. The pathogens for gill necrosis are Flavobacterium columnare ; and for skin haemorrhages, Streptococcus agalactiae and Aeromonas hydrophila . There are no laboratories for diagnostic tests in the area, and farmers resort to pharmaceutical laboratories to confirm the bacterial pathogens affecting their fish.

The farming model

The most popular cage size is 5mx11mx3m deep. Other floating cage sizes are 6mx12m, 5mx10m and 4cmx8cm with 3m depths. The stocking density will depend on the size of fingerlings but the range is 80-120 fish/m3

In the case of monosex tilapia, farmers stock 600kg of fingerlings at size 30-40/kg in 5mx11mx3m cages. This is about 18,000-19,000 fingerlings. Song added that for mixed sex tilapia, farmers buy smaller fingerling (size 60-70/kg) and they nurse them in cages for one month to reach size 20/kg before transferring to

Farmer and feed distributor Tran Van Sieng with Uni-President Vietnam’s Wei Che Wen, Sales and Marketing Manager, Asia (left).

Feeding tilapia in one of 10 cages belonging Tran Van Sieng

larger cages of 5mx11mx3m. The total biomass is 900kg of about 18,000-19,000 fish. The acceptable survival rate is more than 60% and harvests reach 8-9 tonnes.

At the time of the visit, Sieng operated only six out of his ten cages. This is because in March, fish prices were low. Song said that is usual for farmers to temporality stop culturing and wait for better prices and continue farming. In July, Sieng had begun operating all 10 cages.

For each cycle, the fingerlings cost VND32,000/kg. Since Sieng stocks 700kg of fingerlings per cage, his total cost

is VND22.4 million (USD881,000). The harvest was 7-8 tonnes per cage at an average body weight of 600-700g. There is a one-time harvest for each cage. The red tilapia is sold live through buyers for the live fish markets and restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City.

After six months of rearing in the cages, in a mixed-sex population, there can be a range of sizes. In 6 months, harvest sizes range from 300g to 1.3kg and the average size is 600g/fish. Due to the unsteady demand and low prices, Sieng is putting his expansion plans on hold.

Truong Song, Sales Manager, Uni President Vietnam at the cage farm located in River Tien, Dong Thap in the Mekong Delta.

The team from Uni-President Vietnam with Tran Van Sieng (third left). From left, the R&D and Sales team, Nguyen Thi Nhat, Le Van Tri, Wei Che Wen, Truong Song, Vo Thuy To Quyen, Dang Hoang Yen Quyen and Tran Phuoc.

Responsible aquaculture supply chains

Caption:

DThe panel on “Responsible aquaculture supply chains: Addressing evolving transparency requirements from farm to consumer,” hosted by GLOBALG.A.P during Seafood Expo Global in April 2024. From left, Audem Lem, Deputy Director of the Fisheries and Division and Secretary of the FAO Committee of Fisheries (COFI); Dawn Purchase, Agriculture Program Manager at the Marine Conservation Society; Theresa Fernandez, Senior Sustainability Manager, Hilton Foods; Carlos Tavares Fereria, Sustainability and Quality Manager, Stolt Seafoods and Remko Oosterveld, Aquaculture Key Account Manager, GLOBALG.A.P.

Responsible aquaculture supply chains

uring the Seafood Expo Global 2024, GLOBALG.A.P hosted a panel discussion on “Responsible aquaculture supply chains: Addressing evolving transparency requirements from farm to consumer”. It brought together representatives from diverse backgrounds: FAO (COFI), Marine Conservation Society, Hilton Foods, and Stolt Sea Farm.

guidance on sustainable aquaculture (GSA) which will be released for debate in July prior to adoption by member countries.

Responsible sourcing

During the Seafood Expo Global 2024, GLOBALG.A .P hosted a panel discussion on “Responsible aquaculture supply chains: Addressing evolving transparency requirements from farm to consumer”. It brought together representatives from diverse backgrounds: FAO (COFI), Marine Conservation Society, Hilton Foods, and Stolt Sea Farm

The discussion delved into topics such as traceability and legal compliance, shedding light on strategies to enhance responsible practices in production systems. Although each panellist offered unique perspectives, they all agreed that meeting the growing challenges and demands of fostering responsible aquaculture supply chains require collaborative efforts from stakeholders across different sectors. Discussions were Europefocussed but as aquaculture’s supply chain is truly global, these could be relevant for responsible supply chains within Asia.

Holistic view on sustainability

Stolt Sea Farms is a producer of high-end flatfish for niche markets. Its customers are explicit about what goes into the feed, that is GMO-free and no land-based protein meals. Tavares Fereria added that some of the ingredients used for this species are becoming scarcer, not because they are not well managed but because there is more competition for them. A future challenge is how to formulate healthy diets for fish that can also bring all the healthy characteristics in the final product for the consumer without disrupting this supply chain. Stolt works with its feed suppliers to make sure that the origins of the ingredients are from responsible sources.

The discussion delved into topics such as traceability and legal compliance, shedding light on strategies to enhance responsible practices in production systems. Although each panellist oXered unique perspectives, they all agreed that meeting the growing challenges and demands of fostering responsible aquaculture supply chains require collaborative eXorts from stakeholders across diXerent sectors. Discussions were Europe-focussed but as aquaculture’s supply chain is truly global, these could be relevant for responsible supply chains within Asia.

Legislations in Europe

Holistic view on sustainability

On recent trends with responsible aquaculture supply chains, Lem said that scope of sustainability has changed. Today, it requires a holistic view, in all the three dimensions of

On recent trends with responsible aquaculture supply chains, Lem said that the scope of sustainability has changed. Today, it requires a holistic view, in all the three dimensions of sustainability. Years ago, the focus was on environmental sustainability, whereas now social dimensions, civil rights, and decent work are important components of a sustainability strategy for any company. Animal welfare is now fundamental. COFI has developed

Relating to more responsible supply chains in the UK and Europe, Fernandez said that there is the implementation of legislation in the UK but there is a difference on what the legislation is asking and what the retailers have been demanding. UK’s seafood supply chain is more focussed on transparency. Managing the threedimensional requirements - social, environmental, and animal welfare - gets complicated with many agents in the supply chain. On the UK’s Commercial Organisations and Public Authorities Duty bill, Purchase commented

The panel on “Responsible aquaculture supply chains: Addressing evolving transparency requirements from farm to consumer,” hosted by GLOBALG.A.P during Seafood Expo Global in April 2024. From left, Audem Lem, Deputy Director of the Fisheries and Division and Secretary of the FAO Committee of Fisheries (COFI); Dawn Purchase, Agriculture Program Manager at the Marine Conservation Society; Theresa Fernandez, Senior Sustainability Manager, Hilton Foods; Carlos Tavares Fereria, Sustainability and Quality Manager, Stolt Seafoods and Remko Oosterveld, Aquaculture Key Account Manager, GLOBALG.A.P.

that this focusses very much on due diligence, and to prevent both human rights violations, and identify and prevent environmental harm. The outcome should be to drive further due diligence and further transparency and traceability within the supply chain.

For Oosterveld, the aquaculture supply chain is quite complex - it is not just the production of fish, but also the production of the feed and the feed materials. The task is more difficult, but he added that responsible practices in aquaculture have improved over the last decade.

Database management

Artificial intelligence (AI) and database systems are becoming fundamental in improving efficiency in the management of any production system which is completely different than 15 years ago. Proteins and oils come from all over the world, so traceability and data management underpin all of aquaculture’s food production. New forms of data capture and the sharing and utilisation within and outside of Europe are essential for global benefit. Traceability data are required from producers and are needed to identify environmental harm and impacts.

Need for a level playing field

In Europe, markets are supplied by both domestic supplies and imports. The free entry of products generates an uncompetitive scenario especially relating to quality. A right balance is needed such that the level of requirements on products applied for Europe’s suppliers is also required for imported products such as for Asian origin feed raw materials. A level playing field is fundamental to the future of the industry, and it is also a question of equity and fairness. A strong point raised is getting certification.

Oosterveld emphasised that voluntary certification systems depend on the professional exchange of all relevant actors in the supply chain: “Only with crossstakeholder collaboration can we as an organisation develop standards that meet the requirements of the whole industry. To achieve increased transparency and traceability, with increasing requirements, the cooperation with all stakeholders in the supply chain is vital. GLOBALG.A.P. ultimately exists to support the whole sector,” he concluded.

GLOBALG.A.P. SUMMIT 2024

Marketing Asian seafood globally

Seafood Expo Global and Seafood Processing Global form the world’s largest seafood trade event was held over 3 days, from April 23-25. Buyers and suppliers from around the world attended the annual exposition to meet, network and conduct business. There were buyers representing importers, exporters, and wholesalers; restaurant and supermarket owners; hoteliers, and other retail and food service entrepreneurs. Exhibiting suppliers offered the newest seafood products, processing and packaging equipment, and services available in the seafood market.

Organiser, Diversified Communications announced that this 2024 edition broke records with more than 35,000 professionals from the seafood sector and was the largest edition in the event’s history. It had 51,248 m2 of exhibition space; the 30th edition had a record 2,244 exhibiting companies from 87 countries around the world.

“The industry relies on this event to achieve its annual business objectives in the global market. Exhibitors and visitors alike use this platform as a place to meet current customers, find new ones, form new relationships and expand their knowledge of the industry,” said Wynter Courmont, Vice President of Seafood at Diversified Communications USA. “It’s been exciting to feel the buzz in the exhibition halls.”

This year’s edition saw an increase in the number of companies presenting aquaculture technologies and equipment, and logistics companies, as well as highvolume buyers from the retail, restaurant and distribution sectors. Also included were the latest trends in products, innovations and technologies to enhance the seafood sector. Sustainability, aquaculture, labour issues, artificial intelligence and traceability were some of the most prominent topics discussed at the conferences over the 3 days of the event.

This Seafood Expo Global 2024 was the second year for the US Grains Council team, from Asia, Europe and Africa. USGC promotes the use of sustainable products from corn and corn co- products. From left, Mohamed Salah Bouthour, Deputy Regional Director, USGC– Africa; Mustapha L Youssoufi, Consultant, Morrocco; Ibrahim Sir Tioglu, Consultant, Turkey; Caleb Wurth, USGC Regional SEA and Oceana; Loyola Toran, Consultant, Spain; Novel Sharma, Seafood Analyst, Rabobank, The Netherlands and Ronnie Tan, Aquaculture Consultant, Malaysia.

Vietnam’s Vinh Hoan Corporation had two products selected as finalists at the Seafood Excellence Global Awards - pangasius suri mi wrappers (left) and pangasius surimi noodles.

Seafood Excellence Global Awards

There were 40 finalists, representing 15 countries selected from the 85 products submitted for this year’s competition, with 8 products for the HORECA sector and 32 for retail. From Asia, finalists included the Fully Cooked Lemon Sourdough Crumbed Cod Goujon by Golden Fresh Sdn Bhd (Malaysia); Wellington Salmon by Dalian Rich Enterprise Group Co., Ltd (China); Lucky Bag and Protein Pho Fusion by Vinh Hoan Corporation (Vietnam).

The Lucky Bag comprises pangasius surimi wrappers. Vinh Hoan Corporation, Vietnam is the world’s largest producer and processor of the pangasius. It was the first

At Xyrex, the team (from right) Gerry Mcguire, Tom Nolan and Daniel Gilaranz, promoted a sulphite-free liquid technology solution Prawn Fresh Ultimate that enhances the quality and extends the shelf life of seafood. The product is a specially designed treatment for the conservation and inhibition of melanosis in all types of crustaceans, and extends shelf life (xyrex.com).

such producer to receive BAP 4-Star. It works closely with fish farmers to promote and ensure aquaculture practices are compatible with international standards for product quality and safety (source: vinhhoan.com).

Golden Fresh is a leading seafood processor and was the first seafood processor in Malaysia to be awarded the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Chain of Custody in 2015. It had three entries for the Seafood Excellence Global Awards and was a finalist for the fully cooked lemon sourdough crumbed fish goujon. The other two entries were organic crumbed fish fillet and chili mango prawns.

and Lay

fully

product.

Rosy Ng

Eng Tan, Pacific West, showed the

cooked lemon sourdough crumbed fish goujon finalist

At the India Pavilion

Leading the exhibitors from India, were MPEDA’s Lahiri Archiman, Deputy Director and Dr S Kandan, Assistant Director. The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) is a statutory body established in 1972 under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry to promote and market marine seafood exports. It carries out inspections of marine products and raw materials, as well as regulate standards and specifications. It is also responsible for sustained, quality seafood exports from the country.

“There are 39 Indian exporters in this year’s show which is the highest to date. The focus is now on the markets in Europe and processors are moving to value-added products,” said S Kandan. The large display of products included large black tiger shrimp and squid.

Gujarat - based Mindhola Foods LLC exports 4,000 tonnes of only black tiger shrimp annually. Some 50% of production is brine frozen and goes to China as HOSO. China’s preference is for small size shrimp (40-50 and 50-60/kg). The rest are exported to the EU, Japan and 10% goes to the US. “We also produce vannamei shrimp on contract of sizes 40-50/kg; 30-40/kg and 20-30/kg,” said Hetal S Patel, Partner. Some 2,500 tonnes come from its farms in Gujarat where they practice partial harvesting. The offer for large size shrimp 26-30/kg is USD8.1/kg, which Patel said is good for the farmers and for exporters like Mindhola.

“At this event, the demand is for smaller black tigers of sizes 30-40/kg to 40-50/kg. Our farming model is low density at 15 PL/m2; therefore, our biomass is low. The post larvae is from Moana broodstock, which in our opinion gives good growth in 33 ppt salinity.”

With regards to India’s country-wide production of black tiger, Patel estimated a production of 35,000 to 40,000 tonnes annually. Gujarat alone produced 10-15,000

Mindhola Food LLP, Hetal S Patel said that their farming model is low density at 15 PL/m2. Post larvae from Moana broodstock has shown good growth in a salinity of 33ppt.

Leading the marketing of India’s seafood, Lahiri Archiman, Deputy Director (left) and Dr S Kandan at MPEDA’s booth.

tonnes. Some 60% of this production goes to China. Domestic sales are still insignificant, although several leading industry players are branding and marketing their black tiger to their own restaurants or local HORECA.

The Waterbase Limited (TWL) is one of India’s pioneering aquaculture integrators with aquafeed milling, farming and processing. According to Ramakanth V. Akula, CEO, it is time to focus on its products coming out of its processing plant, such as crab meat. When discussing local consumption, Akula singled out the 3As- Awareness, Affordability and Availability. The foci for local markets are those in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. “But a challenge is the transport costs for small volumes. Therefore, together we need to develop better cold chains.”

Abad Fisheries has a JV with Pescanova and Jorge Sanabria, Abad Overseas, India Operation, works with the team in India to ensure the export quality standard of shrimp from Abad Fisheries. From three processing plants in Visakhapatnam, Nellore and Nizampatanam, Abad exports vannamei shrimp products as HOSO to China and Europe. There are various certifications for Abad, among them is Vietnam’s NAVIFAD, which allows Abad to export to Vietnam for reprocessing except that with high prices, China is a more suitable option.

“We are not targeting the US market but may do so in the future when we have value-added products. In India, the ponds are small and not lined and stocking density is around 18 PL/m2. We can increase the stocking density once ponds are lined and more aeration is provided,” said Sanabria.

OceanPick is Sri Lanka’s first oceanic fish farm for Asian seabass or barramundi. Started in 2012, it has created a sustainable culinary delight. Irfan Thassim, CEO, provided samples of the barramundi farmed in pristine waters off Trincomalee. The BAP certified barramundi are processed with HACCP certified processing facilities to meet global standards. In 2023, Oceanpick entered the European market for the first time through a partnership with Danish seafood supplier and exporter Kangamiut Seafood, which is part of Denmark’s Kangamiut Group.

OceanPick sells around 10 to 15% of its 1,000 tonnes of annual production domestically and exports the remainder. Thassim said that the company plans to ramp up to 1,500 tonnes in 2024 and increase to 3,000 tonnes in 2025 (oceanpick.com).

Irfan Thassim, CEO, promoting his barramundi in hall 1.

Ramakanth V. Akula, CEO with visitors, Ragnar Nystøyl, Chief Analyst, and Ida Seljevoll Skancke, Analyst, Shrimp, Kontali.

Promotion of Buri and Tai

This was at the Japan Pavilion. Buri is yellowtail Seriola quinqueradiata , rich in protein and in DHA and EPA. In Japan, the yellowtail changes its name as it grows –hamachi (35-60cm) and warasa/mejiro (60-80cm). It is often called buri when it is 80cm or longer. Tai is red seabream Pagrus major , a low fat and high protein fish with high levels of glycine which give its sweet taste. It also has high levels of inosinic acid and taurine. Inosinic acid provides an umami taste.

Japanese farmers produce fish by paying attention to taste and texture. Together with processors, they use a unique killing technique called “shinkei-jime” so as not to stress the fish and keep them fresh and tasty. Many yellowtail and seabream farmers use different fish farming pens, depending on the growth stages. Farms use AI automatic feeders, and EP feed which does not easily dissolve in water; hence reducing the environmental impact of feed.

The next edition of Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global will take place in Barcelona from May 6 to 8, 2025.

Chefs preparing sashimi from yellowtail and red seabream at the Japan Pavilion.

A digital platform to market seafood at speed 24/7

Klarys, based in Rennes, France, was present within the large French Pavilion in Hall 2 at the Seafood Expo Global 2024, held from April 23-25 in Barcelona, Spain. The team presented its digital solution on seafood procurement. The company is not a newco, in 2023, Procsea, the first eProcurement platform to meet the specific needs of the fresh food industry, announced a name and brand identity change to Klarys. The new name is synonymous with clarity, technology, and human support.

Founded in 2016, the company has developed a comprehensive eProcurement platform to support the specific issues faced by players in the fresh food industry, seafood included. In simple terms it offers a 24/7 digital platform to optimize the purchasing and selling processes and connect the industry (producers, wholesalers, retailers, etc.) to make it more efficient, transparent and sustainable.

At their booth, Arnaud Gauthier, CRO said, “We want to optimize the seafood supply chain which is to optimize the purchasing and selling processes, both for buyers and suppliers. On our eplatform, buyers can have real time 24/7 visibility on prices and availability and digitize all their transactions from order to invoice..”

The mission is to equip players in the seafood industry with effective tools to meet the challenges of today

and tomorrow. “The industry needs to address several challenges we want to help them to overcome such as margin optimization, data accuracy, traceability, regulations, food waste, etc. . But note that we are here not to remove human intervention but improve efficiency and cut down admin costs of buying and selling. Industry is changing and we offer digitalisation of seafood industry for the new generation of players.” added Lucas Demange, Head of Marketing and Growth.

Klarys now has 1,500 suppliers from 40 countries on its platform which is actually a private ecosystem of producers who have made an ecatalog of their products and uses the platform to push their products to their customers. “The advantage for the supplier is that we connect them to their ecosystem in seafood, buying and selling. Several years ago, we saw this as an opportunity to create efficiency on transactions. They can reduce their administration tasks, orders, and logistics documentation via our integrated ERP order management system. We ask that products meet sanitary and traceability requirements as required by international trade standards,” said Gauthier.

The platform charges are subscription based whereby cost is related to size and revenue of the company. However, participation requires a personal invitation. Klarys counts Le Maison Reynaud , a distributor of premium seafood as a early adopter of its platform. klarys.io

Klarys at Seafood Expo Global 2024, held from April 23-25 in Barcelona, Spain, from left, Renaud Enjalbert, CEO; Anita Renault, Sales; Arnaud Gauthier and Lucas Demange

A major acquisition in the shrimp

The Syqua team and visitors at the recent Asian Pacific Aquaculture 2024 in Surabaya, held from July 2-5. Seated from right, Dan Fegan, Chief Impact Officer; Dr Craig Browdy, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and visitor, Cristian Chen, BiomiXin, Taiwan. Standing, from right, Anushia Shanmugaraj, Group Manager, Marketing. Dr Natthinee Munkongwongsiri, Field Research Manager and Dr. Lumpan Poolsawat , Nutritionist

The Syqua team and visitors at the recent Asian Pacific Aquaculture 2024 in Surabaya, held from July 2-5. Seated from right, Dan Fegan, Chief Impact OVicer; Dr Craig Browdy, Chief Technology OVicer (CTO) and visitor, Cristian Chen, BioMixin, Taiwan. Standing, from right, Anushia Shanmugaraj, Group Manager, Marketing

forward in its mission to enhance and diversify the genetic resources and market reach. This strategic acquisition will not only bolster its existing portfolio but also pave the way for new market opportunities, and most importantly, to protect its strain security with another genetic nucleus and broodstock multiplication facility in the USA.

Strategic acquisition and market expansion

This latest acquisition of the assets of Primo Broodstock USA LLC (“Primo”), a company that has been known for its pioneering work in the development of specific pathogen free (SPF) and disease tolerant genetic lines, marks a pivotal moment for SyAqua. Primo has an impressive legacy, having been the first to leverage SPF populations out of Ecuador to address disease challenges in major markets like Mexico and China. This acquisition allows SyAqua to tap into robust and well-established genetic resources while significantly expanding its US genetic nucleus and broodstock multiplication facilities.

Unlocking new market segments

With Primo’s integration, SyAqua now has the potential to tap new genetic stocks developed over years of selective breeding for disease tolerance. This strategic move opens the potential for more innovative selection strategies

that will bring to its customers enhanced performance even in the most challenging production environments. SyAqua anticipates a significant increase in supply of its US broodstock production capacity by the end of 2024, targeting potential production of more than 230,000 broodstock/year. This acquisition will enhance the ability to meet the growing demand in major shrimp-producing markets.

Innovative infrastructure enhancements

SyAqua Americas continues to refine its biofloc based raceway production technologies, known for efficiency and superior broodstock. This expansion, coupled with new state of the art packing lines, will ensure stringent environmental control and top-notch product quality. These advancements highlight the dedication to sustainability and operational excellence.

Commitment to genetic excellence and sustainability

The long-term commitment to balanced genetic selection programs remains unwavering. It has consistently delivered some of the highest-performing broodstocks globally. The acquisition of Primo enriches SyAqua’s genetic resources, aligning with the vision of business sustainability and a commitment to managing environmental impact of the blue economy, particularly in Asian shrimp farming industry. Furthermore, the alliance with Ocean 14 Capital Fund strengthens this dedication to sustainable practices and innovative solutions in aquaculture. syaqua.com

AUGUST 14-15, 2024 • BANGKOK, THAILAND

Networking & Engagement Opportunities!

Don’t miss Asia’s leading aquaculture event! Save the Date!

FINFISH AQUACULTURE: STEERING AN INDUSTRY INTO FOCUS

While there are large and successful integrated operations making waves globally, most stakeholders in Asia are still seeking focus and directions for growth. Production in Asia is still associated with lower value fish such as the tilapia and pangasius, and there is no significant marine fish species. Asia has lagged its temperate species peers in the past decade. Why is that and what is holding it back?

TARS 2024 offers expert analysis, business models, technology, innovations and state-of-the-art biotechnology, and a deep dive into challenges along the entire supply chain – from genetics to production to marketing.

40 SPEAKERS & INDUSTRY PANELISTS

• State of Industry and Challenges

• A Good Start with Genetics, Hatchery and Nursery

• Disease Mitigation: Management and Innovation

• Precision Nutrition, Health Interventions and Feed Efficiency

INDUSTRY DIALOGUE

Industry challenges = startup opportunities = venture capital investments

HARD TALK WITH BUSINESS LEADERS

Marketing, Branding and Sustainability: A Global Exchange

DIALOGUE: Fish Farmers X Technology

• Future Proofing Asia’s Finfish Aquaculture INTERACTIVE BREAKOUT ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS on how to build an integrated enterprise

ABOUT TARS

Now in its 13th year, The Aquaculture Roundtable Series® (TARS) is a stakeholder-driven effort to facilitate the sharing and exchange of information and experiences for a common goal, to equip the industry with the next phase of growth.

Strategic additions in Southeast Asia and Latin America to strengthen “Meeting at the Farm Gate” commitment

Cannounced the addition of two industry veterans to their sales team, furthering their commitment to growth and excellence in the global animal nutrition and feed industry.

in animal health and nutrition aligns perfectly with CBS Bio Platforms’ mission to enhance animal performance through innovative feed solutions.

Strategic additions in Southeast Asia and Latin America to strengthen “Meeting at the Farm Gate” commitment

CBS Bio Platforms’ philosophy is centered around meeting customers – at the farm gate. This hands-on approach ensures they understand the unique challenges and opportunities faced by their clients, allowing them to provide tailored solutions that enhance animal health and productivity. As CBS Bio Platforms continues to grow, they remain dedicated to this philosophy by expanding their sales team to better serve customers in key international markets.

Krisjan Jones, President of CBS Bio Platforms, said “We are pleased to welcome Fuci Guo and Francisco Portela to our team, expanding our presence in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada based CBS Bio Platforms has announced the addition of two industry veterans to their sales team, furthering their commitment to growth and excellence in the global animal nutrition and feed industry.

“Their combined expertise and experience will be instrumental in our ongoing efforts to expand our global reach and enhance our product offerings. We are confident that they will be tremendous assets to our team and to our clients.”

CBS Bio Platforms’ philosophy is centered around meeting customers – at the farm gate. This hands- on approach ensures they understand the unique challenges and opportunities faced by their clients, allowing them to provide tailored solutions that enhance animal health and productivity. As CBS Bio Platforms continues to grow, they remain dedicated to this philosophy by expanding their sales team to better serve customers in key international markets.

Dr Fuci Guo (left) joins CBS Bio Platforms as Global Sales & Marketing – Aqua and Pet. Fuci’s expertise is critical as CBS Bio Platforms grows its footprint in Asia, Indonesia, and Thailand. His background in sales and business development within the aquaculture sector will drive significant growth and establish a strong market presence in these regions.

Francisco Portela (right) joins as a Sales Specialist focusing on poultry. Francisco’s role is pivotal in expanding CBS Bio Platforms’ presence in some South, Central American and Caribbean markets. His extensive experience

CBS Bio Platforms is on a strong growth trajectory, fuelled by strategic expansions and the addition of talented team members. The establishment of their new facility in Volga, South Dakota, which now serves as their US headquarters, enhances their distribution and manufacturing capabilities. This, along with the growth of their sales team, in Southeast Asia and Latin America, positions CBS Bio Platforms to better meet the needs of their diverse and growing customer base worldwide. These strategic expansions ensure they remain at the forefront of the animal nutrition industry, providing innovative solutions and fostering strong partnerships globally.

Dr Fuci Guo joins CBS Bio Platforms as Global Sales & Marketing – Aqua and Pet. Fuci’s expertise is critical as CBS Bio Platforms grows its footprint in Asia, Indonesia, and Thailand. His background in sales and business development within the aquaculture sector will drive significant growth and establish a strong market presence in these regions.

Francisco Portela joins as a Sales Specialist focusing on poultry. Francisco’s role is pivotal in expanding CBS Bio Platforms’ presence in some South, Central American and Caribbean markets. His extensive experience in animal health and nutrition aligns perfectly with CBS Bio Platforms’ mission to enhance animal performance through innovative feed solutions.

September/October 2024

Issue focus: Aquaculture Innovations

Industry Review: Marine Shrimp Larval & Nursery Feeds/Feed management

Deadlines:Articles/Adverts – July 17

November/December 2024

Issue focus: Health and Disease Management

Industry Review: Catfish and Freshwater Fish Feed Enzymes

Deadlines: Articles/Adverts – September 18

Krisjan Jones, President of CBS Bio Platforms, said “We are pleased to welcome Fuci Guo and Francisco Portela to our team, expanding our presence in Latin America and Southeast Asia. “Their combined expertise and experience will be instrumental in our ongoing eRorts to expand our global reach and enhance our product oRerings. We are confident that they will be tremendous assets to our team and to our clients.”

Email: zuridah@aquaasiapac.com/enquiries@aquaasiapac.com

AQUA 2024 – Copenhagen is the place to be end August!

Copenhagen is the place to be end August!

he AQUA events are co-organised by the European Aquaculture Society (EAS) and the World Aquaculture Society (WAS). They are held every six years. Past events were held in Nice (2000), Florence (2006), Prague (2012) and Montpellier (2018).

The AQUA events are co-organised by the European Aquaculture Society (EAS) and the World Aquaculture Society (WAS). They are held every six years. Past events were held in Nice (2000), Florence (2006), Prague (2012) and Montpellier (2018).

AQUA 2024 will take place from August 26-30 at the Bella Arena in the Danish capital Copenhagen. It will comprise a scientific conference, trade exhibition, industry forums, workshops, student events and receptions. The event will highlight the latest aquaculture research and innovation to underpin continued growth of this exciting food production sector. It will be a showcase for Denmark, and its innovation leadership in several key technologies crucial for future aquaculture, but also a meeting and exchange platform for experts from around the world.

AQUA 2024 will take place from August 26-30 at the Bella Arena in the Danish capital Copenhagen. It will comprise a scientific conference, trade exhibition, industry forums, workshops, student events and receptions. The event will highlight the latest aquaculture research and innovation to underpin continued growth of this exciting food production sector.

The overarching theme of AQUA 2024 is Blue Food, Green Solutions and the scientific conference will include more than 60 sessions covering all aspects of aquaculture research. AQUA 2024 is organised with the support of local partners, the Danish Export Association Fish Tech, ICES, DTU AQUA, the University of Copenhagen, EUROFISH and

It will be a showcase for Denmark, and its innovation leadership in several key technologies crucial for future aquaculture, but also a meeting and exchange platform for experts from around the world.

The overarching theme of AQUA 2024 is Blue Food, Green Solutions and the scientific conference will include more than 60 sessions covering all aspects of aquaculture research. AQUA 2024 is organised with the support of local partners, the Danish Export Association Fish Tech, ICES, DTU AQUA, the University of Copenhagen, EUROFISH and the Copenhagen Convention Bureau.

Organisers are extremely grateful for the support of event sponsors, with Gold Sponsor BioMar, Silver Sponsors Biorigin, US Soy, University of Stavanger and the Blue Planet Academy and with Session Sponsors AquaSoja.

AQUA 2024 is expected to be attended by 2500 (1400 conference participants and 1200 tradeshow visitors) from 90 countries. There will be 60 conference sessions and 12 special sessions, industry forums and workshops. The trade show will have 240 booths.

EDITORIAL CALENDAR 2025

Look out for AAP’s annual report on trends in Asia’s production of marine shrimp and aquafeeds

Issue focus

& Hatchery

and challenges

Feeds & Processing Technology Functional Feeds/ Additives/ Controlled Systems Fish meal/oil Industrialisation

Ingredients

Marketing and certifications Market and product developments, post harvest processing, generic marketing, certifications, branding, food safety etc

Company/Product News News on activities at international, regional and local conferences and trade shows

Events VIV Asia 2025, March 12-14 Bangkok, Thailand VietShrimp International March 26-28

World Aquaculture 2025 China Qingdao, April 24 – 27

Seafood Expo Global May 6-8 Barcelona, Spain

For advertising/article contributions and guidelines contact: zuridah@aquaasiapac.com

TARS 2025 Shrimp Aquaculture August (TBA)

Global Shrimp Forum 2025, September (TBA) Utrecht, The Netherlands International Aquaculture & Fisheries Expo Taiwan Taipei (TBA)

Programme highlights

The programme grid, showing sessions and days is now online at https://was.org/meeting/pdf/AQUA24_ ProgrammeGrid.pdf. It shows the parallel abstract-based scientific sessions, as well as the forums and special sessions that will take place and specifically targeted towards operators and producers.

Plenary speakers

Two exciting plenary sessions and speakers have been announced. On Tuesday, August 27, Dag Sletmo, Senior Vice President Seafood Division, DNB will give an opening plenary “Analysing the Future.” FAO says we need to increase sustainable aquaculture production by at least 75% by 2040 if we are going to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

Dag will share his top-down financial perspective on what it will take to grow aquaculture production significantly. The demand drivers are in place, the challenge is increasing supply and at the same time reduce then environmental footprint. That will require new technology, better farming practises, and better regulations. As an industry depending very much on government regulations, it also needs a strong social license to achieve these goals. Where will the money to finance this come from? DNB Bank’s aquaculture activities is focused on salmon, but Dag will also address aquaculture more generally.

Dag Sletmo is Senior Vice President Seafood Division, DNB, Norway’s leading bank in Norway and the largest bank globally in salmon farming with clients in Norway, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Scotland, Canada, Chile, and Australia.

At the end of the conference, on Friday, August 30, Signe Riemer-Sørensen Research Manager Analytics and AI, SINTEF will give her views on “AI with Knowledge.” Large language models have democratised AI. Co-pilots and chat-bots are changing most office jobs, but despite their impact, they will not revolutionise aquaculture. For that completely different types of AI are needed. Through examples from aquaculture and beyond, Signe will explain the challenges, provide intuitive insights into AI, and introduce the latest developments on industrial AI and their potential in aquaculture.

Signe Riemer-Sørensen is Senior Researcher and Research Manager for Analytics and AI at SINTEF. Her research evolves around overcoming challenges for implementing machine learning and artificial intelligence in a broad range of industrial settings.

Industry and Innovation Forums

These are regular features of EAS events. The Industry Forum will be held all day on Tuesday, August 27 and will address the main event theme, with key questions on the status and future of the sector with regards, to adaptation to climate change, mitigation of its effects, circular approaches, and other externalities. It will be divided into several panel discussions, overseen by event master of ceremony for the day, Lise Walbom, CEO, Food Nation Denmark.

The AQUA 2024 Innovation Forum is being co-organised by EAS, EATiP (European Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Platform) and the European Commission. It will be held all day on Wednesday, August 28. It will look at “Exploring Inter-Regional Collaboration & Innovation Transfer Vehicles for Aquaculture,” through the lens of EU policy and initiatives, and at the global level. It comprises four sessions with a list of presentation and interactive discussion to address key questions. The detailed programmes for both forums are currently being finalised and will be online at the events website. https://www. aquaeas.org/

Special sessions

There are also have several special sessions at AQUA 2024, bridging the gap between science and industry:

• Quantitative Atlantic Salmon Health Assessment

• EUROshrimp Forum

• Aquaculture Stewardship Council workshop on “Future aquafeed supply chains in a transitioning industry and a changing climate.”

• Host Resistance to Sea Lice

• Light and Fish – And Light and other organisms

• IMTA and low-trophic aquaculture.

Exhibition and tours

The AQUA 2024 exhibition is about to be sold out, with more than 240 booths from suppliers and operators covering all aspects of aquaculture production at the global level. All coffee breaks and happy hours will be held in the exhibition hall to maximise interaction.

On the Monday preceding the event, there will be four options for tours.

• Tour high-tech facilities at the Danish Technical University (DTU) National Food Institute – side streams and research into new ingredients from marine raw materials.

• Visit OxyGuard International Danish Headquarters.

• Visit MAREL Progress Point global Demo Center, to see cutting-edge solutions and software for fish processing.

• A behind the scenes tour of the Danish National Aquarium (Den Blå Planet) - Northern Europe’s largest aquarium.

Factsheets on all tours are available on the “Travel” top menu of https://www.aquaeas.org/ and registrants can sign up for them during the registration process. Early Bird registration for AQUA 2024 is at https://www. aquaeas.org/Registration/Submit/AQUA24E

With quality as a priority, raw materials are sourced exclusively from human-grade processing units and trusted suppliers. Every element undergoes meticulous analysis in their laboratory to meet the highest quality standards, supported by HACCP and GMP certifications.

Promoting sustainable marine bioextracts in SEA

Singapore-based Aquaproducts is leading the charge in up-cycling seafood industry by-products through innovative technology and sustainable practices. With a commitment to establishing a robust and eco-friendly supply chain for marine functional protein, Aquaproducts aims to become a key regional hub in Southeast Asia.

Marking a significant milestone, there was the official opening of the Marine Biotech Vietnam factory on June 11, 2024, with a target output capacity of 10,000 tonnes/year from 50,000 tonnes of seafood waste/year. In his welcome speech, François Dupuis, General Manager extended his gratitude to community, partners, stakeholders and industry

Founded in 2014 by French engineers Thomas Levallois and François Dupuis, Aquaproducts has a decade of expertise in marine bio-extracts. The company has forged strong partnerships with industry leaders - Scanbio SAS Norway and Maqpro Biotech Indonesia, reinforcing its position in the sector.

In 2022, Aquaproducts expanded its reach by collaborating with the Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund to establish Marine Biotech Vietnam (MBV). This hydrolysate factory focuses on producing dry hydrolysate protein powder for the Asian feed and pet food markets. The company is also pursuing collaborations with European biotech firms to develop biopolymers from shrimp shells.

The company’s innovative approach centres on the enzymatic hydrolysis of marine by-products to extract proteins and other valuable compounds such as oils, chitin, and chitosan. This method not only ensures sustainable innovation but also valorizes these by-products, transforming them into top-quality marine functional proteins for animal feed and pet food markets.

With quality as a priority, raw materials are sourced exclusively from human-grade processing units and trusted suppliers. Every element undergoes meticulous analysis in their laboratory to meet the highest quality standards, supported by HACCP and GMP certifications.

Marking a significant milestone, was the official opening of the Marine Biotech Vietnam factory on June 11, 2024, with a target output capacity of 10,000 tonnes/year from 50,000 tonnes of seafood waste/year. In his welcome speech, François Dupuis, General Manager extended his gratitude to community, partners, stakeholders and industry colleagues as well as to local officials and the management and team of the industrial park (VL IZ) for their support.

“I thank our investors, for believing in our vision providing the financial backing necessary to bring this project to life. I also thank the financial institutions that have supported us to ensure the smooth progress of our construction and operational plans.” Dupuis added, “On a personal note, I am proud to be part of this extraordinary journey. The teamwork, innovation, and dedication I have seen over the past few months have been incredible.”

This state-of-the-art facility is equipped with the latest technology and designed with sustainability in mind. From automated production lines to green energy solutions, the company has incorporated cutting-edge innovations to ensure efficiency and environmental responsibility. The site of 2,500 m 2 of space was selected with future scalability in mind and strategically located in Long Anh province in proximity of raw materials sourcing, clients and close to the main exportation ports.

Thomas Levallois, partner and co-founder said, “The need for quality, sustainable and locally produced ingredients has always pushed us in this adventure. Marine protein coming from seafood by-products and especially shrimp heads have so much potential as feed supplements for the animal feed industry. Our extraction process uses natural enzymes that will cut down the protein molecular size into small peptides and free amino acids.

“We then obtain what we call ‘marine functional protein’ that have many benefits for health like, anti-stress, antioxidant, anti-microbial, immunity enhancer while being extremely palatable and digestible. These new ingredients will bring new solutions to help the transition towards antibiotic replacement, productivity improvement and sustainability”.

Lastly, Levallois said, “Our model of using local undervalued by-products and transforming it here using soft process with low energy consumption enable us to offer these natural functional ingredients at a very competitive cost for the SEA region.”

Presentations during the event were also interpreted/translated to Vietnamese for the benefits of local participants. The event concluded with final remarks by Professor Vu Ngoc Ut, Rector of College of Aquaculture and Fisheries, Can Tho University.

International Summer Course on Circular Aquaculture

TParticipants at the International Summer Course on Circular Aquaculture held on June 26-28 in Can Tho City, Vietnam.

Participants at the International Summer Course on Circular Aquaculture held on June 2628 in Can Tho City, Vietnam.

his was held in Can Tho City, Vietnam from June 2628. It brought together national and international experts, researchers, and practitioners to discuss and advance sustainable practices in aquaculture. Organized by CIRAD (French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development), hosted by Can Tho University, and sponsored by the French Embassy in Vietnam, the course aimed to promote circular aquaculture systems.

Emphasis was placed on efficient resource use and waste minimisation to foster environmentally friendly and economically viable aquaculture practices. The event commenced with an opening speech by Associate Professor Tran Minh Phu, Vice Rector of College of Aquaculture and Fisheries, Can Tho University. Partners from private companies and research bodies also attended.

Lectures and presentations

Experts shared insights on advancements in circular aquaculture, discussing innovative techniques for waste reduction, resource recycling, and sustainable feed production. Noteworthy presentations included:

• Professor Sachi Kaushik from INRAe, France, on “Sustainable/circular feedstuffs for Aquaculture”

• Prof. Johan Verreth from Wageningen University, The Netherlands, on “Yield gaps in aquaculture: a tool for development?”

• Dr Joel Aubin from INRAe, France, on “Carbon footprint of aquaculture,” focusing on life cycle analysis and its application in tropical aquaculture

• Dr Michael Phillips from Futurefish, Thailand, on the potential of aquaculture research through public-private collaborations.

With over 70 participants in attendance, the course provided ample networking opportunities for attendees to connect with international peers, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange. Sessions were dedicated to building partnerships for future projects and research initiatives.

Case studies and success stories

These highlighted successful implementations of circular aquaculture systems from various countries, including case studies from Vietnamese scientists and industry. A notable case study was presented by Dr Nguyen Nhut on “Circular intensive shrimp aquaculture with zero discharges, leading to reduced inputs and impacts.”

Additionally, online presentations by scientists from CIRAD, France, covered topics such as feed management under pond culture systems by Dr Kazi Kabir, novel approaches for assessing nutrient flow dynamics in ponds using stable isotope techniques by Dr Mortillaro, and rearing of novel species such as mullets by Dr Philippe Cacot.

The course underscored the importance of transitioning to circular aquaculture to address environmental concerns and ensure the long-term viability of the aquaculture industry. By sharing knowledge and fostering collaboration, the event aimed to catalyse the global adoption of circular practices.

Presentations during the event were also interpreted/ translated to Vietnamese for the benefits of local participants. The event concluded with final remarks by Professor Vu Ngoc Ut, Rector of College of Aquaculture and Fisheries, Can Tho University.

have 1,200 exhibitors from over 120 countries to the Rennes

The SPACE Expo, which will take place from September 17 to 19, 2024 in Rennes, France, will have 1,200 exhibitors from over 120 countries to the Rennes Exhibition Centre. The products presented by exhibitors, the numerous conferences and debates, the events and presentations at the Espace for the Future will provide practical solutions to important economic, climatic, societal and environmental issues.

presented by exhibitors, the numerous conferences and debates, the events at the Espace for the Future will provide practical solutions to important societal and environmental issues.

The SPACE Expo, which will take place from September 17 to 19, 2024 in Rennes, France, will have 1,200 exhibitors from over 120 countries to the Rennes Exhibition Centre. The products presented by exhibitors, the numerous conferences and debates, the events and presentations at the Espace for the Future will provide practical solutions to important economic, climatic, societal and environmental issues.

The SPACE Expo, which will take place from September 17 to 19, 2024 in Rennes, France, will have 1,200 exhibitors from over 120 countries to the Rennes Exhibition Centre. The products presented by exhibitors, the numerous conferences and debates, the events and presentations at the Espace for the Future will provide practical solutions to important economic, climatic, societal and environmental issues.

For several years, SPACE has been oHering a programme dedicated to aquaculture. With the growing participation of companies from the sector, the Expo is becoming a key event for French and international aquaculture businesses. Moreover, this expanding sector is drawing an increasing number of French and international attendees. Of the 12,000 international visitors who attended the event in 2023, 18% were interested in aquaculture (visitors from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, etc.)

For several years, SPACE has been oHering a programme aquaculture. With the growing participation of companies from the sector, becoming a key event for French and international aquaculture businesses. expanding sector is drawing an increasing number of French and international 12,000 international visitors who attended the event in 2023, 18% were aquaculture (visitors from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Canada, Netherlands, Italy, etc.)

For several years, SPACE has been offering a programme dedicated to aquaculture. With the growing participation of companies from the sector, the Expo is becoming a key event for French and international aquaculture businesses. Moreover, this expanding sector is drawing an increasing number of French and international attendees. Of the 12,000 international visitors who attended the event in 2023, 18% were interested in aquaculture (visitors from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, etc.)

For several years, SPACE has been oHering a programme dedicated to aquaculture. With the growing participation of companies from the sector, the Expo is becoming a key event for French and international aquaculture businesses. Moreover, this expanding sector is drawing an increasing number of French and international attendees. Of the 12,000 international visitors who attended the event in 2023, 18% were interested in aquaculture (visitors from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, etc.)

At SPACE 2024, a dedicated program for aquaculture exhibitors from this sector internationally Tuesday 17 September (registration required). others in English. The speakers will include exhibitors, technical institutes visitors. A designated aquaculture route will be provided online and in the visitor guide. The stands involved will have specific aquaculture signage. Some 100 exhibitors in 2024 will be featured along the route. www.space.fr

At SPACE 2024, a dedicated program for aquaculture to meet visitor demand and showcase exhibitors from this sector internationally. Conferences will be held throughout the day on Tuesday 17 September (registration required). Some of the presentations will be in French and others in English. The speakers will include exhibitors, technical institutes and international visitors. A designated aquaculture route will be provided online and in the visitor guide. The stands involved will have specific aquaculture signage. Some 100 exhibitors in 2024 will be featured along the route. www.space.fr

At SPACE 2024, a dedicated program for aquaculture to meet visitor demand exhibitors from this sector internationally. Conferences will be held throughout Tuesday 17 September (registration required). Some of the presentations others in English. The speakers will include exhibitors, technical institutes visitors. A designated aquaculture route will be provided online and in the stands involved will have specific aquaculture signage. Some 100 exhibitors featured along the route. www.space.fr

At SPACE 2024, a dedicated program for aquaculture to meet visitor demand and showcase exhibitors from this sector internationally. Conferences will be held throughout the day on Tuesday 17 September (registration required). Some of the presentations will be in French and others in English. The speakers will include exhibitors, technical institutes and international visitors. A designated aquaculture route will be provided online and in the visitor guide. The stands involved will have specific aquaculture signage. Some 100 exhibitors in 2024 will be featured along the route. www.space.fr

August 14-15

TARS 2024: Finfish Aquaculture Bangkok, Thailand tarsaquaculture.com

August 21-23

VIETFISH 2024

Ho Chi Minh City vietfish.com.vn/en

August 26-30

AQUA24 Copenhagen, Denmark was.org

2024 2025

March 6-10

Aquaculture 2025

New Orleans, USA was.org

March 12-14

VIV Asia 2025, Bangkok, Thailand vivasia.nl

2024

September 3-5

Global Shrimp Forum 2024 Utrecht, The Netherlands shrimp-forum.com

September 9-12

larvi 2024 Ostend, Belgium aquaculture.UGent.be/

September 11-13

10th Aquaculture and Fisheries Expo Taiwan (IAFET) 2024 Taipei taiwanagriweek.com/en/

September 17-19

SPACE Rennes, France space.fr

March 26-28

VietShrimp International Can Tho, Vietnam vietshrimp.net

April 24 - 27

World Aquaculture 2025 China Qingdao was.org

May 6-8

Seafood Expo Global Barcelona, Spain seafoodexpo.com

September 24-27

Latin American & & Caribbean Aquaculture 2024

Medellin, Colombia was.org

November 20-23

AFRAQ24

Hammamet, Tunisia was.org

November 29-30

Conacua 2024

Los Mocchis, Mexico conacua.com

August (TBA)

TARS 2025

Shrimp Aquaculture tarsaquaculture.com

August (TBA)

Vietfish 2025

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam vietfish.com.vn

• No.16-18-20, DT743 Road, Song Than II Industrial Zone, Di An Ward, Di An City, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam

• Tel: +84-274-3790811 (Ext: 1711)

• Fax: +84-274-3790819

• Email: aquafeed@upvn.com.vn