FEB 2023 - International Aquafeed magazine

FISH FARMING TECHNOLOGY

Scotland’s strength in aquaculture

- Optimising aquaculture to help nourish the world

- Social impact project for Smallholder Aquaculture

- Feed production efficiency and quality of Egypt: A case study

- Key to boosting shrimp performance, health and sustainability

- Artificial Inteligence & the cleaner fish

WELCOME

Welcome to the February 20923 edition of International Aquafeed magazine. We have a strong line up for our second edition of the year with a reminder early on in the magazine to consider contributing to our new Aquafeed Journal.

By the time you read this we will have published our Journal Guidelines, which will be posted on our website later this month.

Roger Gilbert Publisher – International Aquafeed and Fish Farming Technology

As we succeed in convincing consumers that farmed fish products should be considered alongside terrestrial animal proteins, we have to accept that we need greater assurances from our raw material supply chains are fit for purpose and with that in mind we should be aware of the cost of alternatives from within our locality in order to respond to a crisis should one occur from time-to-time that threatens our hard-won market share.

We have promoted the concept of an Aquafeed Journal recently at an expo in the United States and have come away with positive support for the idea. If you or your organisation has carried out research and development work that is well referenced and follows the accepted format for Journal submissions, then we will be happy to consider it for peerreview and publication via both the supplement in our printed magazine and placed on our website where it will be openly available to download and to make citations from.

I’m convinced that this Journal will prove a valuable service and support for those working in aquaculture nutrition and feed production and will assist in further distributing information that will prove valuable to the development of our industry sector.

Autarky vs Globalisation

There is a debate forming around Autarky - which is a sophisticated and trendy way of referring to food security and/ or self-sufficiency in food production.

The BBC, here in the UK, is running a multi-part pod cast series on ‘The New Age of Autarky’ on its Sounds App which looks at the importance of self-sufficiency against the widely globalised food industry.

Is this an issue for aquaculture to be concerned with? Or do we feel we are more self-reliant and local than many other protein producing industries, such as the pig and poultry sectors? When we were largely relying on ‘home-made’ feeds, where local ingredients were the backbone of small-scale fish farming, we would be seen as very much an Autarky food producing sector.

However, the industry has moved on in recent decades and like others competing to provide populations with competitive food prices, have given way to saucing much of our feed ingredients from global suppliers - and here I’m not just talking about fishmeal, but also about specialist protein and oils products that require specialist manufacturer in order to meet the growing demand from farmers for efficient and effective feeds while at the same time meeting local environmental considerations.

We should review where our feed raw materials come from and how sustainable their supply is when things go wrong.

Like ‘globalisation,’ ‘Autarky’ is not a compete answer in itself, but we should be prepared to work with both in tandem in order to protect our businesses and to serve our customers.

Reaching all parts of the industry

Professor Simon Davies points out in his editorial overleaf the likely significant growth yet to come in aquaculture production in the years ahead as consumers become more familiar with the quality of farmed fish species and recognise the health benefits of eating fish. He points to the industry market breaking through the US$50 billion mark this year.

If that is the case, we have a lot of work to do to ensure the industry is supported in keeping its head-above-water in terms of useful and timely technology transfer which I believe will become increasingly important over time.

Making sure we reflect the latest developments occurring within the aquaculture sector - from algae production through to hatcheries for marine species - is going to be particularly important; and that is why we have doubled our commitment to nutrition and technology, including fish farming technology, in each edition of IAF and why we are also looking in particular at taking our Spanish-language edition monthly! Until now we have published IAF-Spanish on a bi-monthly basis. But the demand for all our content to be translated into the three non-English language editions we provide has become increasingly apparent since the lifting of Covid restrictions.

I’m please to say that 2023 will see us publish IAF Spanish on a monthly basis.

If you look at our back issues, you will find many articles that are worth of revisiting. And that is why we have set up via our subscription service - and to which we offer a free Coupon Code to waive charges for those who have a real interest in aqua feeds – not only, an App in Spanish, but also a FlickRead library where you can reach all our publications in Spanish from 2020.

We have not overlooked the other language editions and plan to take them forward into monthly publications as time and resources allow. They will include: Norwegian and Chinese. You can view the Spanish library here: ttps://flickread.com/ edition/Aquafeed-spanish-edition

Aquafeed as we all know is the term that is used to feed aquatic animals of commercial importance globally such as fish, crustaceans, and hatchery reared stages of molluscs. The aquafeed market is expected to grow significantly in the coming years due to increasing demand for seafood and the need to boost the production of aquatic animals to meet consumer expectations.

Professor Simon Davies Nutrition Editor, International Aquafeed

According to a report by Markets and Markets, the aquafeed market is expected to grow from US $34.2 billion as reported back in 2018 to US $50.3 billion beyond 2023, at a CAGR of 8.3

in many well-known retailers throughout Europe and quite a popular fish in a variety of forms.

Carp: Carp are a popular choice for aquaculture in both China and South Asia due to their hardiness and ability to thrive in a variety of farming environments, in fact carp are the largest scale fish production in Asia as a whole with wide varieties of related species and of significant importance in the Indian sub-continent.

Asian Sea bass: Sea bass (barramundi, Lates calcarifer) are becoming increasingly popular in both regions and are often farmed in sea cages or ponds using a variety of feeding and

So, we have a new year. Every year at this time, we either look back over the year that has just passed, or we look ahead at what is to be expected of the new year. Allow me to do a bit of both, from an aquaculture perspective.

The year 2022 will go down in history as a troublesome one. The Covid pandemic came to an end, or then perhaps not, after all. And the start of a war none of us quite understand, and certainly do not dare to predict the end of. Global developments like these have had a massive impact on world economies, and on practically all industries. Aquaculture is no exception.

For our industry, the most important development has perhaps been the huge increase in the cost of energy. Almost overnight, a global energy crisis developed, and Europe was particularly hard hit. The cost of energy (oil, gas, electricity) in some regions increased ten-fold.

The trading picture also changed as a result of the war in Ukraine. Trade with Russia was seriously restricted by most countries. In some cases, all trade with Russia ceased. In addition, restrictions and other difficulties caused by the Covi d pandemic exacerbated the situation.

And yet, 2022 was a good year for world aquaculture, with increases in production as well as trade. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that aquaculture production in 2022 reached 92 million tonnes, up by 1.2 percent compared to 2021. The value of seafood exports increased by an impressive 10.7 percent to USD 193.5 billion, although the export volume only increased by 0.8 percent. Thus, prices for seafood products increased massively in 2022. In some cases, like Norway, the year was unbelievable: a 25 percent increase in export value!

But can we expect the same growth in 2023, given the new restrictions and cost developments? Consumer purchasing power may go down, and surely that affects demand for fish

fisheries already in 2023.

Rabobank has published more specific predictions for 2023 aquaculture production. While they predict farmed shrimp productions to approach or pass the 6 million tonnes mark, they expect salmon production to stabilize, as both Norway and Chile are expected to normalize production growth after Norway increased production volume by 11. 9 percent in 2022 and Chile experienced a decline of 7.7 percent. Tilapia production is expected to accelerate, while production of pangasius will most probably also rebound, but not to previous (2019) levels. One problem foreseen by Rabobank is the volatile feed supply.

The continued growth of aquaculture will have some influence on technology developments. If we are to reach future predictions, we will have to continue to improve all aspects of aquaculture technology.

But are the aquaculture nations of the world ready and willing to do this? Are they allocating enough money to research and development in order to achieve the improvements needed?

We know that a number of the large technology companies, like AKVA group and Benchmark, are committing impressive sums to R&D. But this is applied research, and some feel that a greater effort is needed in basic research, which is costly, and which is generally considered to be the domain of the authorities.

With uncertain economic development ahead, many countries may be reluctant to allocate large sums to R&D at the moment. It is easy to cut back on something that may or may not give desired results. Research is a risky business, and therefore a very expensive activity. But it is necessary, all the more so as the world progresses, and our industry is getting more complex and science oriented. I only need remind you what the then Assistant Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture at FAO, Mr. Arni Mathiesen, said at Aqua Nor 2013:

“All our efforts and actions towards sustainable development

Erik Hempel

The Nor-Fishing Foundation

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International Editors

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Editorial Advisory Panel

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• Dr Allen Wu

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• Dr Dominique Bureau

• Dr Elizabeth Sweetman

• Dr Kim Jauncey

• Dr Eric De Muylder

• Dr Pedro Encarnação

• Dr Mohammad R Hasan

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Aquafeed Journal journal@perendale.co.uk

FISH FARMING TECHNOLOGY

THE BIG PICTURE

The Aquafeed Journal

Aquafeed Journal is a new online publication by Perendale Publishers Ltd, United Kingdom, with a distinguished track record of technical and trade magazines in the agricultural and aquaculture sectors. This new peer-reviewed scientific journal will serve academia and the commercial aquaculture industry with high-quality papers relating to aquafeed science and technology for different species of farmed fish and crustaceans. It is envisaged to address fundamental nutritional requirements for effective and optimal production and applications to advanced feed formulations. This will include essential amino acids, proteins and energy sources as well as key vitamins and minerals pertaining to fish and shrimp growth, feed efficiency and health. A major area will be studies that focus on feed ingredient assessment and in particular those that are sustainable alternatives to marine derived materials like fishmeal and fish oil. Therefore investigations directed towards plant and next generation proteins like insect meal, algae and microbial sources would be desirable areas. Novel oils and lipids that provide essential fatty acids would be of considerable importance. Studies on functional ingredients affecting the health and immune function of fish and shrimp are very topical and of much interest to the commercial aquafeed sector. We would welcome papers researching the role of prebiotics, probiotics and phytobiotics on gut health, mucosal immunity and their interaction and modulation of the intestinal microbiota.

The journal recognises that fish farming technology plays a vital role in aquafeeds and their efficiency in production so related technologies associated with fish behaviour, feed management and environmental impact of diets in tanks, ponds and cages and RAS facilities are pertinent.

In essence, Aquaculture Journal will appeal to the aquaculture practitioner, scientist, technician, feed manufacturer and at various levels in academia such as undergraduate, masters, PhD students and post-doctoral researcher as both an invaluable source of validated information and a potential location for their own research findings.

The manuscripts will be fully peer-reviewed by appropriate members of our editorial board and approved finally by the Editor-in-Chief.

These OA papers will be available on our official website aquafeed.co.uk and in print as well as being downloadable. Links will be provided within our existing International Aquafeed magazine.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with your queries at journal@perendale.co.uk.

MarinTrust publicly launches its Multispecies Fishery Assessment

MarinTrust, a leading programme for the responsible sourcing and production of marine ingredients, has developed an assessment framework for multispecies fisheries. The framework is designed to meet the needs of complex fisheries, such as trawl fisheries in Southeast Asia, that do not fit the conventional approach to fishery assessment. MarinTrust's solution, a set of multispecies criteria, is a direct response to the complexities that make these fisheries difficult to manage. Major adaptations are required for these regions and their fisheries if they are to meet expectations for the sustainable supply of fish for both direct consumption and for fishmeal and fish oil.

The objective

The objective of the multispecies criteria is to enable the assessment of highly complex fisheries in which as many as 300 may be regularly caught. Given the complexities, MarinTrust has begun by testing its criteria in the real world. The criteria need to measure improvements in multispecies fisheries and enable producers of marine ingredients to demonstrate progress and a commitment towards responsibly sourced raw materials.

There are currently two fisheries that have applied the MarinTrust Multispecies Fishery Assessment and have used its structure to develop Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs): the Gulf of Thailand mixedtrawl fishery (Thailand) and the Vung Tau multispecies fishery (Vietnam).

Both FIPs are accepted on the MarinTrust Improver Programme as part of the multispecies pilot project. During the Improver Programme and pilot project process, the FIPs will have to meet a series of timebound improvement milestones, specific to the Fishery Action Plan, demonstrating positive improvements within the fishery.

The multispecies criteria have been developed by experts in fishery science and are based on best practice fisheries management as specified in international norms and guidance. This includes the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as captured in the 1995 Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF), with additional input from the 2006 regionalisation of the code for Southeast Asia (Regional CCRF). The multispecies pilot project is enabling MarinTrust to test the methodology in active fisheries so it can be fine-tuned and ultimately constitute a fully tested, robust and realistic set of criteria, that can be included within the full MarinTrust fishery assessment. The aim being to incorporate the multispecies assessment into the MarinTrust Standard. Although the MarinTrust Standard's unit of certification is the marine ingredient producing factory, it also requires an assessment of the fishery.

Vorapong Iamtrakul, Project Director- Gulf of Thailand Trawl Fishery Improvement Project (FIP), says, “Managing multispecies

fisheries of over hundred species together is very challenging. The MarinTrust multispecies assessment criteria guides us through the areas we need to focus so that we become more confident on the right pathway for improving Thailand's fishing sector, restoring aquatic resources, raising stakeholders awareness, and protecting our Ocean. It is truly a multi-stakeholder project, based on the commitment and the expectation of members of the Thai Sustainable Fisheries Round Table with eight associations along Thailand seafood supply chain joining hands together for the first time ever (Thai Fishmeal Producer Association, Thai Feed Mill Association, National Fishery Association of Thailand, Thai Overseas Fishery Association, Thai Food Processors' Association, Thai Frozen Food Association, Thai Tuna Industry Association and Thai Shrimp Association).”

Kim Thanh, FIP Coordinator for the Vung Tau trawl fishery, says, “A Multispecies Mixed Trawl Fishery Improvement Project is probably the most challenging assignment we have taken on so far. We are proud that the 'FIP Vung Tau' project in Vietnam has been accepted onto the MarinTrust Improver Programme, even though we realise we still have a long way ahead of us.”

Dan Lee, Standards Coordinator/ Program Integrity Advisor at Global Seafood Alliance and Chair of the Multispecies Pilot Steering Group (MPSG) says, “The emergence of this assessment methodology is truly something to celebrate. MarinTrust, its fishery experts and these pioneer fisheries are to be commended for their determination to find workable solutions to complex, real-world fishery problems.”

Aller Aqua uses research to develop new feed, Support L

Aiming to keep the use of antibiotics in aquaculture to a minimum and considering the fact that more and more fish farms are becoming certified antibiotic free, the research world is focusing its efforts on identifying new products with antibacterial action. These substances are derived primarily from plant products, ensuring that the final consumer fish is both healthy and free of antibiotic residues.

This forefront development is now integrated in all sectors of livestock industry and has been for the past few years in the world of aquaculture as well.

We at Aller Aqua have pursued this path by identifying and testing various new molecules, in our Research and Development center and directly on fish farms.

The research resulted in the development of a new feed for Aller Aqua called Support L, which has proven significant efficacy in controlling and preventing the bacterial diseases that most commonly affect fish farms. The field tests, which were monitored by veterinarian experts and pharmaceutical company specialists, included both saltwater and freshwater fish species.

The feed enriched with these active ingredients was tested in hatcheries and grow-out of char and rainbow trout, as well as bass and sea bream, for the prevention of flavobacteriosis, aeromoniasis, yersiniosis (red mouth), vibriosis (listonella), and pasteurellosis (photobacterium).

The fish's health improved significantly after about a

month of testing the functional feed Support L. Disease outbreaks were reduced or eliminated, resulting in increased survival and a significant reduction in the use of medicated feed.

The tests were carried out on farms where endemic diseases were present.

• Char - chronically affected by furunculosis, a disease to which they are highly susceptible.

• Rainbow trout fry - frequently subject to flavobacteriosis.

• Bass and bream fry - infected with endemic polybacteriosis such as Aeromonas and Vibrio.

• Sea bass in sea cages - at risk of pasteurellosis and vibriosis, diseases that have been on the rise in recent years due to the concentration of production sites and increased seasonal temperatures. The positive effects of preventive treatment were remarkable in all of the above cases. Significantly reduced mortality because of disease reduction or elimination, as well as improved fish health and performance.

Support L is a product created for preventive use. Depending on the type of breeding and disease background, Support L can be used as seasonally and/or continuously, and it is recommended to start at least 30days before the potential onset of a disease.

Aller Support L is not a medicated feed and thus cannot be used as a direct treatment in cases of occurring disease. It is important to emphasize that prevention is better than cure and this is the case with Aller Support L functional feed.

60 years ago, aquaculture contributed approximately 4 percent of fish and shellfish used for human consumption, during the past year (2022) it is estimated that it contributed 56 percent. This very accelerated growth of the activity is not only due to the fact that it is the most sustainable form of animal protein production on the planet, but also because there have been very significant technological advances that have allowed this development. From aeration and formulated feed, through genetic improvement programs, water quality monitoring systems and vaccines, to automation and the use of artificial intelligence, technology has changed aquaculture and has given direction.

Previously, aquaculture was a big black box, where we stocked organisms, fed, asked the midichlorians for them to grow fast and without diseases, and we really harvested without knowing what was really happening. Little by little we have begun to make that box transparent, today having a translucent box through technological tools that allow us to see what is happening within our culture systems, analyzing how much and when our organisms are feeding, interrelating this information to the genetic line that we use and a significant amount of physicochemical parameters of the water, which allows us to use resources much better and be more efficient every day. Today,

Anew version of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) has been launched to assess the different dimensions of sustainable corporate performance. The MILA Pacific Alliance version of the index examines 68 companies rated as Best In Class to analyse their environmental risk and opportunity levels based on ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) criteria. In 2022, Salmones Camanchaca is part of the best-performing group for the second consecutive year and first in the Chilean food, beverage and tobacco category.

The index, which includes companies in the Chilean, Colombian, Mexican and Peruvian markets, awarded the company 72 points this year, eight points higher

precision aquaculture is the present, but what is next? Where are we going? How far can we trust technology? There is no doubt that technological advances are essential for the development of aquaculture, but just as important are the people who understand the principles behind them. The combination of technology and the professionalization of the sector will save investors from big headaches and millions in losses.

I know I will touch on very sensitive issues, but aquaculture simply cannot be done at any cost, even if markets are available. The carbon footprint is a concept that we have to understand and for which we have to be fully responsible, well, only if we want our planet to exist for our grandchildren. The "innovative" ideas of producing organisms completely out of their environment in places where energy expenditure is very high is completely unsustainable and can only be done in places where markets are willing to pay a significant premium for a product that they could get at a much lower price and damage to the environment. Many people have dedicated themselves to selling aquaculture projects and not doing aquaculture, selling technologies that seem idyllic, but are actually a recipe for disaster. Perhaps some of these technologies will be part of the tools of the future and may become interesting for a venture capital fund, but in the case of dealing with an investment fund or with the assets of small or medium investors, it is a true crime, and this fact has damaged the reputation of aquaculture, especially because there has been an attempt to massify something that is still in the testing process and that is not ready for people who do not have very deep pockets.

The future of aquaculture is “aquaculture zero”, with no carbon footprint or negative footprint, and making efficient use of all waste and by-products. Aquaculture has to be designed to solve the issues of tomorrow, and correlated with renewable energy, recycling, innovative ideas such as the generation of arable land and linked to other economic activities such as tourism. Let's remember, the objective is not technology per se, it is to produce food in the most efficient way in all aspects, using the greatest number of technological tools to achieve it, but without being fooled by false promises. It is true, we have to seek to fly very high, but without ceasing to have our feet on the ground.

than last year and 33 points above its 2020 score. The new score places it in the 97th percentile this period (vs. 92 in 2021). This improvement ranks the company above the industry average in the Environmental, Social, Governance and Economic assessments.

"The circumstances of today's world demand an industry with more sustainable practices. More than just a challenge, we have the obligation to steer our corporate culture in that direction. Salmon farming is, in essence, a renewable activity. As a very healthy protein, it has the potential to contribute to people's nutrition and wellbeing. The results of this index encourage us to continue improving our processes to add value for current generations without compromising the needs of future

generations," said Vice President of Salmones Camanchaca Ricardo García.

The Dow Jones MILA Pacific Alliance includes 27 other Chilean companies in the financial, food and commodity retail, construction, energy, real estate, retail, technology services, telecommunication and utility industries.

S&P Global, the international company in charge of the index, selected the most relevant criteria from each ESG sustainability dimension according to their current importance for the industry. These include management and innovation and supply chain management, which were the criteria in which Salmones Camanchaca came closest to industry-best scores, with 96 out of 100 points for the former and 81 out of 99 in the latter.

“Flying with our feet on the ground… towards a SMART aquaculture”

Antonio Garza de Yta

For the second straight year, Salmones Camanchaca is one of the most sustainable companies in the Pacific Alliance

As a kid, I was often schooled by my dad on the value of reusing and repurposing things. My siblings and I used to joke that my dad was the only person we knew who went to the local rubbish dump and came home with more than he took to get rid of. But he is from that post-war, silent generation, that had lots of rationing of things imposed and where they didn’t have the surplus of resources that other subsequent generations have had. So, it was kind of understandable in retrospect. His mentality was one of “There’s no such thing as waste – Just things we haven’t repurposed yet”.

In fact, this mentality seems to be one that is making a resurgence through a range of sectors of late, whether its plastics, batteries, or paper and marine ingredients are another in that regard. While the use of trimmings and by-products is not a new initiative in the marine ingredients sector, the momentum behind the use of these “circular” proteins and lipids is something that is steadily growing. The “new” aspect to this age-old practice is that aquaculture is now a major player in the provision of marine ingredient raw materials, with by-products from farmed salmon, tilapia and pangasius sectors being significant contributors. And we haven’t yet been able to add shrimp into that story yet as the data remain elusive, so the numbers could be much more significant. And when we say significant, we’re talking about 678,000 tonnes of fishmeal being produced in 2021 that

A free tool to estimate the body composition of farmed fish

SPAROS just released ficoEst | fish composition estimator, a new free web-based tool that estimates the body composition of farmed fish given information about fish weight, water and/or ash content. ficoEst is aimed at researchers who carry out studies in fish nutrition and fish farmers who wish to expand the information collected in the field.

Estimating the body composition of fish is an important step in fish nutrition, as it is the basis to calculate nutrient utilisation rates. One of the main goals of a fish nutritionist is precisely to optimise nutrient utilisation, to ensure the production of healthy and tasty fish in an economical and sustainable way. From the point of view of fish farmers, knowing the body composition of fish more regularly throughout the production cycle can help in the search for more effective feeding strategies and also have a better quality control of their products. That is why we invite professionals within the sector to use ficoEst as a part of their tool kit. ficoEst uses different mathematical models to estimate

came from aquaculture by-products. On the fishoil front, aquaculture is again a major contributor with by-products now contributing more than 30 percent of all global fishoil production in 2021. While byproducts from various pelagic and demersal fisheries remain bigger contributors to marine ingredients (fishmeal + fishoil) production globally, there has been a growing appreciation of circular thinking in how we approach maximum utilisation of whatever resources we have, be they aquaculture or fishery origin. And while this might mean fishmeal and fishoils in some cases, it could also mean value-added products like fishoil for direct human consumption, or hydrolysates or even leather in some cases. The list of value-added opportunities seems to grow each year.

However, we still need to take this thinking further and incorporate it more deeply in our resource use. This means thinking about how we process products, how we manage the by-products to maintain their quality, how we coordinate collection of such by-products to centralise rendering and secondary processing and so on. The use of modern engineering, refrigeration, and logistics systems all come into it. How we best use those products (as feed or food) and being mindful of the regulatory issues surrounding how we process fish and fish products (e.g., fishoils) for human consumption as well. Traceability will also become an issue of growing importance in all this too.

No doubt as aquaculture keeps growing, it will continue to give us a growing resource base from which to make marine ingredients. While the salmon, pangasius and tilapia sectors are doing well here and have in many cases built such circular thinking into their processing, what if we could better facilitate production of marine ingredients beyond those sectors? What about the other millions of tonnes of fish and shellfish whose non-edible parts we don’t use. What more can we do to build a waste-free world? While the FAO announced last year in the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) 2022 report that about two thirds of all fisheries are now well managed (about 80 percent by volume), they also mentioned that the scope for increasing the production from wild-capture fisheries was clearly limited. So clearly from fisheries we need to make better use from what we already have. Again, that comes back to that notion of making sure we achieve 100 percent utilisation of the resource. As said at the outset, there’s no such thing as waste –just things we haven’t repurposed yet.

the body composition of fish, depending on the input data provided. Some models use only fish weight as an input, while others use either fish weight, water and ash content. Providing more input data considerably improves the capacity of this tool to estimate the body composition of fish. However, knowing that the user does not always have access to all information, we decided to implement different estimation methods to ensure that we are delivering a flexible and user-friendly tool that can be useful in a wide variety of situations. It is the user who chooses which model inputs to consider based on the best information available at the time.

Currently, ficoEst is available for six fish species:

• Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata)

• Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

• Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

• European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

• Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

• Meagre (Argyrosomus regius)

A manuscript describing the estimation methods behind ficoEst is being prepared for submission to a peer-review journal.

Brett Glencross

No such thing as “waste” – Just things we haven’t repurposed yet

Seafood distributor eyes further European expansion following £1m facility from Cynergy Business Finance

Southern Aqua Seafood (SAQUA), a leading European frozen seafood importer based in Wiltshire, is set to continue to expand its business offering across Europe after receiving a £1m facility from Cynergy Business Finance.Committed to supplying the finest quality seafood from a global network, SAQUA helps to bring a network of trusted fisheries to the European market and boasts an extensive product range, including yellowtail, Patagonian toothfish and Australian prawns. Its current customer book of leading retailers and restaurant groups includes Waitrose, Carrefour, The Ivy and Nobu.

Recognising the importance of true sustainability in the industry, SAQUA was founded on two decades of experience in seeking out the highest quality sustainable fisheries to provide ethically sourced products to its customers. It works collaboratively with a network of world-leading seafood producers, each rigorously independently verified to ensure they maintain sustainable practices and deep community partnerships.

Having experienced significant growth following Brexit and the Coronavirus pandemic, Cynergy Business Finance provided SAQUA with a flexible £1m invoice discounting facility to provide it with the additional cash

flow it needed to meet its growing order book. The facility will also enable the business to expand its global supplier base, consolidating its position as one of Europe's leading seafood distributors and allowing the business to continue to grow its extensive product line.

Tessa Pollard, head of finance at Southern Aqua Seafoods, says, 'With true sustainability being a core mission for SAQUA, the ever-growing consumer demand for sustainable products means that we've experienced strong growth over the past few years, providing top retailers and restaurant groups across Europe with the highest quality seafood from around the world. However, in order to fulfil this demand, it was essential that the business had strong cash flow.

“Working with the team at Cynergy has been seamless. The solution it developed was quick to set up, and has given SAQUA year-round access to dramatically higher financing at a far more cost effective rate than any other financing option we could find. I look forward to working closely with Paul and the rest of the Cynergy team to continue delivering on our growth strategy.”

Paul Fraser, Executive Director at Cynergy Business Finance, says, “It has been a pleasure to work with the SAQUA team. Sustainability is extremely important to Cynergy Business Finance and seeing SAQUA prioritise this within its business is fantastic.”

“We are proud to have supported SAQUA's mission of delivering sustainable sea food across the world and look forward to continuing to work with the team and seeing their growth over the next few years.”

Product Spotlight - The Samplex CS90 Bulk Truck Sampling Probe

Samplex is the UK's leading brand on the truck probe market, with many of the originally manufactured machines still in use worldwide today The Samplex CS90 is robust, reliable, highly adaptable, and able to provide a truly representative sample of a bulk load.

The entire Samplex range of bulk samplers uses time proven electro-mechanical technology, completely eliminating the use of hydraulics and the associated risks of pressure hoses splitting, which could contaminate valuable loads.

Wide Range of Products

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More representative Sample Samplex truck probes deliberately don't use the more common and potentially flawed method of suction to collect product, as this has been demonstrated to possibly bias the collected sample with dust. Instead, they use positive air in conjunction with cyclonic action, and the design of the Unispear probe allows the product to fall directly into the airflow under gravity, and therefore provide a smaller, but importantly, more representative sample. Uniquely, Samplex fit all their probes with a twin variable aperture, to allow more or less product to be sampled as required.

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BioMar sources Benson Hill ingredients to boost sustainability of aquafeed

Benson Hill, Inc., a food tech company unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants, and Denmarkbased BioMar, have announced a strategic collaboration to advance BioMar's responsible sourcing program by leveraging Benson Hill soy and further assessing its sustainability impact on high-performance aquafeed formulations.

BioMar is sourcing consecutive seasons of Benson Hill ingredients as part of its commitment to build restorative soy supply chains. Feed holds the primary cost in the farming of aquaculture and is the major contributor to its carbon footprint. Benson Hill advances sustainability goals throughout the ingredient development process – from monitoring regenerative and deforestation-free practices on the farm to producing ingredients that reduce water and energy-intensive protein concentrating steps in processing. Together the companies are assessing how the advantages of Benson Hill ingredients advance BioMar's sustainability program and reduce the impact of aquaculture farming for BioMar customers.

“BioMar has made a commitment to reduce the impacts of our feeds, and 97 percent of the carbon footprint comes from the feed ingredients,” says Morten Holdorff Møjbæk, Global Sourcing Director, BioMar Group.

“With our exit last year from the Russian raw material market, it was important for us to find suppliers committed to working with us to ensure we deliver on our responsible sourcing ambitions. Benson Hill's closed-loop business model, robust U.S. farmer network, and ability to trace back to seed make them an ideal collaborator.”

The companies expect this collaboration to demonstrate that reducing carbon emissions in the world's fastestgrowing protein sector and meeting market demands for

traceability can be achieved at the same time. Consumption of blue foods continues to rise around the world. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, global consumption of blue foods (excluding algae) has increased at an average annual rate of three percent since 1961, compared with a population growth rate of 1.6 percent. In 2020, global aquaculture production reached a record 122.6 million tons.

“By working with a global leader like BioMar, we can help accelerate ongoing efforts in the industry to stand up fully deforestation-free supply chains and decrease the carbon footprint of products consumers love,” says Matt Crisp, Chief Executive Officer of Benson Hill. “Through this joint effort, Benson Hill and BioMar will be able to further research how high-protein, low-oligosaccharide, plant-based ingredients perform in aquaculture feed at scale, and potentially slash the use of one of the biggest contributors of carbon emissions in that supply chain. Stewarding our planetary resources is essential on the journey to accelerate transformation in the global aquaculture industry.”

According to the FAIRR Initiative, a collaborative investor network that raises awareness of the material Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risks and opportunities caused by intensive animal protein production, aquafeed production is 'associated with the extraction of vast quantities of wild fish, which can lead to overexploitation of stocks.' Research on raw materials, ethically derived from high-protein soy can begin to alleviate this issue. Separately, Benson Hill recently achieved the ProTerra Certification, validating the ESG principles guiding its work to deliver non-GMO ingredients to markets within and outside the United States.

OPTIMISING AQUACULTURE TO HELP NOURISH THE WORLD

by Yoav Rosen, Global Marketing Director, Aqua, ADM Animal Nutrition

Meeting the world’s rapidly expanding nutritional needs will require a more resilient food system and a wider variety of protein sources.

“Blue food” – derived from aquatic animals, plants or algae – is one of the fastest-growing sources of protein, and the global demand for fish is expected to almost double by 2050. Aquaculture presents a significant opportunity: it currently supplies about half of the total seafood consumed and it’s expected to exceed volumes of wild-caught aqua species. New strategies in aquaculture production can help maximise fish and shrimp performance throughout their lifespan, and ultimately support improved access to quality proteins around the world.

Unlocking the Power of Nutrition

Improving aquaculture productivity at harvest relies on actions taken from newly hatched fish and shrimp, and beyond. Early life stages are crucial to fish development throughout their lifespan and high-quality nutrition is a key aspect of the strategy to maximize aqua performance. With greater recognition of this fact, the introduction of a nursery phase is becoming a regular practice in aquaculture. Farmers and scientists understand that juvenile fish and shrimp are repeatedly subject to stressors that may severely impact their health, both immediately and long term, and subsequently hamper their physiology and future growth performance. Meeting the animals’ precise nutritional requirements and supporting them with functional feed additives can help them overcome these stressful phases and progress to maturity.

As a global player in human and animal nutrition, ADM takes a holistic approach to support aquaculture producers in addressing these challenges with innovative, science-based nutrition

solutions. Its aqua business is primarily focused on shrimp, tilapia and marine fish species in Asia and Latin America, with a global network of research and development centers that create complementary solutions from hatchery and early-stage feeding to grow-out phases. The breadth and depth of ADM’s expertise and portfolio provide the aquaculture industry with products and services that help make production more efficient, secure and sustainable.

Optimising Efficiency

The ambition to maximise zootechnical performance and streamline production costs relies on improved efficiencies. Aquafeed producers are concerned with raw material and energy costs in the same way aquaculture producers are concerned with the costs of feed and farm management. Precise nutrition formulations can support both goals.

By developing stable, highly digestible feed rations with the exact nutrients fish and shrimp need to thrive at all life stages, fewer nutrients are lost through excretion or nutrient leaching and feed conversion ratio (FCR) improves. Likewise, precision nutrition is a careful calibration of profitability and effectiveness. Quality feeds are customized with the correct nutritional requirements of the animal as it grows, including physical pellet quality, feed intake and nutritional efficiency, which relies upon a deep understanding of the characterization of raw materials and nutritional requirements of aqua species. Furthermore, feed rations must be adapted to address the environmental conditions of specific regions and seasons for full optimisation.

Extensive technical knowledge is required to formulate precision nutrition solutions, as well as leading technologies and a comprehensive pantry of ingredients. ADM has the capabilities to deliver on each of these components, with decades of experience in animal nutrition at all life stages. For example, its BernAqua global brand is dedicated to supporting healthy growth and performance of freshwater and marine fish and shrimp in

hatchery and nursery phases. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience and the latest advances in nutritional science, the BernAqua team produces specialized and high-quality feeds for enhanced aquaculture productivity.

To demonstrate the importance of early-stage nutrition, a study was conducted on tilapia for 236 days, starting from the first feeding. During the first month of feeding, one group received a micro-extruded feed produced by marumerisation technology and the second group was fed a standard crumble feed. The two groups were managed the same way and fed the same feed for the rest of the trial. A significant difference in live weight was observed after the first month, 3.17g and 0.52g (P<0.0001) in groups one and two, respectively.

The feed used during the first month not only impacted performances during this period, but also performances up to harvest. Final live weight reached 797g and 683g (P<0.0001) and fillet yield was 37.1 percent and 34.5 percent (P<0.0001) in groups one and two, respectively. Survival was also strongly impacted. The benefits on fish performance during the first month can be attributed to nutrition, digestibility of the feed, feed stability in water and the pellet size adapted to fish mouth size while fish are growing. This indicates why an investment in premium feeds at larvae and juvenile stages is part of ADM’s strategy to improve aquaculture productivity.

Enhancing Security

Another critical element of aquaculture performance is mitigating risk to hatchery and farming operations, including use of products that are safe for the producer, the aqua species and the environment. ADM offers include aquaculture management services and nutrition solutions to help reduce potential contamination and secure the harvest. From its world-class feed mills with advanced safety protocols to complete feed and additives formulated with top-quality ingredients, ADM is a go-to partner for aquafeed and aquaculture producers alike.

Functional feed solutions are a growing specialty within the industry, in which ingredients with demonstrated benefits are incorporated into complete feeds, enhancing synergies to support aqua species’ growth and resilience. Nutrition scientists are finding new ways to tailor feed formulations to specific stressors, including mycotoxin binders, immune-boosting solutions and more. ADM applies its Life Defense concept to address both challenges from external stressors and internal, physiological functions of fish and shrimp. In addition, AquaTrax is a recently launched feed additive that leverages Pichia guilliermondii, a novel inactivated yeast that helps shrimp better cope with physiological challenges3.

ADM has also developed a comprehensive Bio-Secure Intensive

Shrimp Production system (BIOSIPEC), with demonstration farms located in Vietnam and Mexico that enable farmers to discover different technologies for successful and sustainable intensive shrimp production. BIOSIPEC applies multiple innovative technologies to allow an efficient and secure shrimp farming using a limited amount of water, well-managed water, strong biosecurity and dedicated feeds.

Advancing Sustainability

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges this world faces, affecting land, air and sea. ADM is scaling up its sustainability efforts to meet the ever-expanding needs of global communities, and to help its partners navigate shifting consumer attitudes and ongoing environmental challenges. Many consumers are looking for more sustainable versions of the products they use daily, which they perceive as safer and healthier for themselves, their families and the environment. In fact, 49% of global consumers – including 58% in Latin America and 53% in the Asia Pacific region – claim to have changed their diet in the last two years to lead a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

To help protect and restore aquatic ecosystems, ADM is focused on advancing sustainable solutions on two levels. First, by developing nutrition products and services that will minimize the environmental impact of aquaculture production. Secondly, ADM supports strategies to minimize waste, improve water quality, enhance animal welfare and optimize feed efficiency for more sustainable fish and shrimp production.

Functional feeds, for instance, may optimize animal health and help minimize the risk of antimicrobial resistance. Plus, precise nutrition formulations with higher-quality proteins can have a positive impact on sustainability by limiting wasted nutrients. Using alternative proteins and oils to substitute for finite natural resources and prioritizing transparent and traceable sourcing practices throughout the supply chain can also help sustainability efforts.

Driving Industry Improvement

The aquaculture industry continues to evolve every day. Technology, data science and innovative solutions are driving the industry forward to anticipate challenges, enhance fish growth and survivability, and help support aqua farming communities worldwide. With a strategic partner like ADM, aquafeed and aquaculture producers have the advantage of a wide portfolio, leading-edge capabilities and technical ingenuity, as well as confidence in exceptional safety and quality. It is through these essential advancements that aquaculture will be better positioned to help address global concerns for food security and sustainability, today and beyond.

FishEUTrust

SOCIAL IMPACT PROJECT for Smallholder Aquaculture

by Dada ‘Foluso, Marketing Coordinator, Aller Aqua, Nigeria

The Aquaculture Without Frontiers project in Nigeria started in 2021 in partnership with the team at Aller Aqua Nigeria and focused on sustainably improving the management practices and economic income of smallholder farmers within existing farming communities. The project follows a model for supporting existing smallholder farmers with the provision of high-quality fish seed, fish feeds, improved management routines, and market access to aid the farmers in not only increasing their production capacity but also developing a sustainable and profitable fish farming business.

We believe this approach, when consistently employed and expanded, will create a high impact both economically and socially for many rural farming communities; a valuable improvement since these smallholder farmers' activities represent more than 60 percent of the current aquaculture production in Nigeria with an average yearly output of 5MT per farmer.

Working from the grassroots with this model ensures that the farmers can quickly transfer management techniques adopted within their respective rural farming communities. The collaboration also ensures that financial support risks are limited to each production cycle and that the selected farmers are committed to the success of the project.

Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF) and relevance to Nigerian farmers

The growth opportunities of the aquaculture industry in Nigeria are quite enormous, but so are its challenges. While Nigeria remains a net importer of fish products and currently at 63 percent of global per capita consumption, its aquaculture industry growth has somewhat stagnated or dwindled due to the increasing risks of production for smallholder farmers. These risks include low management skills and high costs of production, coupled with increasing feeds price, general economic inflation, and global financial pressures.

Smallholder farmers deal with daily challenges ranging from inadequate capital and technical resources to producing and marketing their fish and fish products profitably. The average smallholder farmer many times struggles with access to adequate production resources, technical knowledge, markets, and agribusiness management skills. Overcoming these challenges is a critical success factor given the relatively volatile economic environment in which they operate and the thin profit bands achievable from such small-scale production enterprises.

In implementing the Aquaculture Without Frontiers project in Nigeria, a production schedule and production journal, provided courtesy of the team at Aller Aqua Nigeria, itemizes estimated feeding quantities and critical routine management activities essential for a successful production cycle. The Aquaculture without Frontiers CIO provided funds for the purchase of quality inputs – catfish fingerlings, high-quality Aller Aqua Claria float

feeds, and general farm overhead costs for each production cycle.

Throughout the project duration, each of the project sites was monitored by a project extension officer, while the Project Coordinator had full oversight of the project. The extension officers attended to and monitored the routine activities of the farmers and reported any challenges experienced for prompt resolution. The project team also simultaneously sourced market access for the fish produced. These critical steps are required to ensure that the project in Nigeria achieved three goals envisioned to be;

a viable fish production cycle

economic gains for the farmer

better farming practices observed and adopted by other farmers in the communities where projects are delivered.

2022 – A very challenging production year

The year 2022 was a very challenging one globally. There was news of recession and high inflation in many countries across the world. These incidents had their negative effects on global supply chains, and more specifically for us in farm inputs prices and labour costs in aquaculture.

The Nigerian agricultural and economic terrain was even more daunting in the year 2022 for our fish farmers. Galloping prices of fish feeds paired with flailing markets for fish products, and the effects of global climate changes presented as massive flooding events across various parts of Nigeria were a few of the challenges faced by our farmers during this phase of the Aquaculture without Frontiers social project.

Recall that in 2021, the project focused on three farmers in selected rural farming communities across various parts of

* Although our ponds were not flooded, reduced fish counts may have been from cannibalism, mortalities, and/or theft as many people gained entrance to farming communities during/immediately after flooding incidents. Confirmatory counts at harvest indicated that some fish may have been lost due to the disorganization, panic, and aftermath effects of flooding in the areas.

two of the most successful farmers from the first phase due to funding constraints and rising costs. The production capacity for each farmer was increased in line with the commitment to sustainably improve the production and economic capacity of the farmers and their local communities. The project sought to support each farmer to produce an additional 1.4MT per cycle, increasing by about 40 percent from the support provided in 2021.

The project team identified and proactively hedged on some of the anticipated challenges. These included encouraging farmers to select proper production sites fortified against flooding

Legal business advice:

• Mariculture and Aquaculture leases

• Aquaculture and mariculture disputes

• Commercial fishery issues

• Acquisition and ownership of fisheries

• Registration of fishing rights

• Defence of fisheries prosecutions

• Seizure of fishing vessels

• International fishing licenses

• High seas fishing

farmers were also encouraged to follow the record-keeping and management routines hitherto set to monitor the growth and general management of the ponds.

Our Project Experience

The production cycle was optimistically projected to span about 120 days, following the plan set for execution. In OS Logan farms, one of the shortlisted farms, production was completed in 158 days while it took about 166 days at Ejanla farms (the second beneficiary farm). This disparity in the time to delivery as recorded was a result of seasonal fluctuations that impacted feeding negatively. There were several wet days with cold weather (<20OC) which lowered fish feed intake, and over 20-30 days of heavy rains and flash floods that prevented feeding or routine sample weighing. The heavy rains created two major flooding events that occurred in July and October/November across Nigeria with a severe impact on the project and the Nigerian agricultural industry at large.

These occurrences hit several farming communities, including the rural communities where our project sites were located. Following the flash floods affecting many of the earthen ponds at our sites, a general disorganization ensued in the farming communities, which may have exposed our ponds to losses. An unusual amount of human traffic of sympathizers, responders, and observers flooded the communities in a bid to help affected farmers salvage some of the fish lost from their ponds.

Although we had no count for the fish that may have been lost after the flooding, a confirmatory count and sample weighing were done at harvest, to enable us to estimate total fish weights. While we had good weights for the fish harvested, the number count was significantly reduced, and this impacted our turnover

*Average fish sales prices are higher than estimated selling prices (but still considered low) because feed prices had increased several times during the production period of the project. For the project, feeds were purchased in bulk at the start and so we were immune to the periodic feed price increments during the project.10.60%

negatively. The tables 1 and 2 show our result compared to the targets set at the start of the project.

The execution of phase II of the project ran smoothly in the early production stages, with impressive growth rates and low mortality recorded. While the team creatively overcame some of the local flash flooding incidents that occurred in June and July, and a second country-wide flooding incident that occurred in October/November. The second flooding episode affected all major farming communities, including fish farms, rice and grain crops – and cut off major travel/trade routes across the country for many weeks. Many aquaculture communities in Nigeria experienced extensive damages, some of which were reported by

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Table 2: Financial Parameters (Nigerian Naira)

• SEA LICE POPULATIONS

• CATARACT PREVALENCE

• AGGRESSION DURING FEEDING

• ENERGY CONSUMPTION

• STORAGE SPACE & COSTS

• MEDICAL TREATMENTS

• FISH HEALTH & WELFARE

• MORTALITY RATES

• STABLE, CONTROLLED GROWTH

• LONGEVITY & EFFICACY

COMPLETE, TAILORED FEED BLOCK DIETS FOR LUMPFISH & WRASSE REDUCED IMPROVED Produced

• PRACTICAL FEEDING METHODS

• DAILY OPERATIONAL COSTS

SOLUTION TO CLEANER FISH MANAGEMENT & SEA LICE CONTROL

the BBC in a documentary aired in November 2022.

These events affected us in four significant ways.

The market went into a spree of panic-selling just as we hit sales time. Many local farmers who lost a portion of their fish or who had ponds that were partly affected and/ or prone to flood began selling off their stock. Without the equipment and capacity to process their fish, everyone tried to sell their fresh fish as quickly as possible. This drastically decimated the market prices projected for fish sales per kg.

With the floods cutting off major intercity routes, it became near impossible for urban markets to reach the farms. The farmers were forced to sell their produce locally at even lower prices, having been confined to a saturated market.

We had a peculiar challenge on the project with the new market dynamics in which we found ourselves. As it was an extreme buyers’ market, with many sellers wanting to sell off their fish fast, buyers began boycotting clarias gariepanus for the more rugged hybrid catfish. There were incidences of fish buyers rejecting the fish and returning them to the ponds after harvest. For context, we raised clarias gariepanus fish in phase I of the project which was flawlessly executed. It has now come into perspective that this was because we sold at a time when the demand for fish was high and the market was less selective. Selling in phase II exposed us to understanding the buyers’ preferences when they had more options which we had not considered in previous cycles.

At harvest, the farmers discovered and reported the loss of some of the fish. These losses were accounted to have occurred due to the aftermath of chaos and disorganization that ensued in the farming communities for several weeks following the floods.

Our overall results in phase II of the AWF project were impacted by these unforeseen incidents experienced in the later parts of the production cycle. Sales of fish were slow and exacting. In OS Logan farms, sales were made to local wholesale buyers at low prices and took about seven days to conclude: twice the usual sale duration. The production days on this farm totalled 158 days.

In Ejanla farms, harvesting and sales took about two weeks because local buyers could only purchase a few quantities at a time. This reality caused the farmer to incur more costs by providing a maintenance ration for the fish while waiting for the buyers. The production cycle here spanned 166 days.

Summary

We saw Phase II of the project to completion despite several daunting circumstances. During the project cycle, the cold weather of the rainy season negatively affected the feeding patterns of the fish and significantly contributed to the longer production days experienced. In like manner, the fish growth and weights obtained from both project sites were lower than our expectations. The lower fish counts from both project sites were also quite significant, thereby resulting in non-profits.

OS Logan farms, which is situated in a more peri-urban area, recorded 252 lost fish while Ejanla farms located in the more rural area had almost half of its stock (633 pieces of fish) unaccounted for. Although the pond was not washed by the flood, some of the losses were suspected to be a result of theft/pilfering especially during and after the rather chaotic flooding incidents. and its aftermath. There is also the possibility of cannibalism in Ejanla farms since the fish were stocked at 2.7g.

Contrary to the initial projection of about 10.60 percent in profit to both farmers. After the sales of fish and financial reconciliation, OS Logan recorded a loss of about 9.79 percent, while Ejanla farms recorded about 11.3 percent in loss.

By implication, neither of the two farmers was able to make an income after over 5 months of production. This poses an even more dire situation for consideration given that the costs associated with production have now risen by more than 37 percent compared to when the project phase started in May 2022.

The incessant flooding experiences across the country during the production year negatively affected the farmers’ morale, fish market prices, demand, and overall short-term confidence in the industry, especially in the face of fast-rising costs as previously mentioned.

Taking our Lessons & Looking forward

It is strongly decided that the challenges experienced in this phase will neither impede the long-term growth implementation plan of the project nor our confidence in the Nigerian aquaculture industry’s potential.

Comparing our experiences and results in the two phases of the project so far, we observed that fish farming during the wet/rain seasons in Nigeria (May – November) allows for more abundant quality water for production, the season is however fraught with many cold days, a higher likelihood for flooding, fish gluts, and lower market prices/demand for fish products. While taking advantage of the resources available may be enticing, the risks as stated are worthy of deep consideration.

We further observed that during the wet/cold days in the period, feed intake by fish is lower and resulted in a significantly longer production cycle than the 120 days estimated and recorded in Phase I.

Despite the experience in this phase, we are confident that the aquaculture industry will continue to grow and become a mainstay for the rapid increase of domestic food production. It will also continue to provide a high leverage for the gainful engagement of youth and women. Today, the aquaculture industry contributes only 17 percent of current fish consumption in Nigeria, while 44 percent remains imported. The industry is expected to produce more than 752m MT by 2030 to maintain the current per capita consumption of 11.2kg. It is therefore essential that we must continue to innovate to surmount the seasonal and/ or current economic challenges of production to reach these potentials.

Continued funding and technical support for the smallholder farmers to resiliently navigate these phases in the short term are also extremely critical. To improve the aquaculture contribution to the food security of Africa’s most populous nation, increased support to fish farmers like the Aquaculture Without Frontiers project is critical to achieving resilience.

More financial support through efficient input supply chains, and structured technical and business management skills, are essential to de-risk fish farming and farms to create more profitable small-scale businesses. Support for access to markets to ensure fair prices for fish products will aid better environmental and sustainable fish production.

We look forward to having more capacity in terms of support, resources and funding to improve the economies of scale of our current farmers and extend our reach to more farming communities across Nigeria.

Feed production efficiency and quality of Egypt A case study

by Joseph Kearns, Technical Consultant, Grand Fxish Feed, Egypt

The Egyptian aquaculture market has a total fish production in 2021 in the area of 2.2 million metric tonnes (MMT) with aquaculture being 1.7 MMT of that total.

In 2019 the Egyptian feed producers had a demand of 1.3 MMT and it is expected to be in the 1.9 MMT range by 2025 for aquaculture use.

Tilapia and mullet are the most common fish with shrimp gaining as a product to be raised. It is predicted that future genetic developments, new feed ingredient sources mainly protein sources and fish health will be topics on the horizon. Egypt is ranked third for tilapia production worldwide and 1st in Africa regarding the size of the fish farming industry and 6th worldwide. Seventy five percent of the feed used in aquaculture is extrusion processed by approximately 105 different feedmills.

The USDA’s FAS, Foreign Agriculture Service in Cairo anticipates increased fish demand in the coming years driven by population and economic growth which will require a sustainable increase in fish production through the utilisation of modern feed use improvement technologies, high quality feed and water use efficiency innovations, as well as good fish farming practices.

Feed production efficiency and quality have been greatly improving in Egypt and this review of the typical steps taken to ensure these attributes are occurring and, in this case, based on the process at Grand Fish Feed. It begins with quality ingredient selection. Industry searches yield advanced ingredient quality by specific defined specifications both domestic and imported. The formulas and ingredient specifications at Grand Fish Feed are assisted by Zeigler

Bros. Inc., Gardners Penn., USA.

During ingredient receiving samples are taken with probes and analyzed in a world class lab for specification assurance. Once passed they are unloaded into bulk or bag indoor storage areas divided by ingredient. The materials pass through typical Feedmill handling system including batching bins. A course mix of the formula occurs then to the grinding system which included a hammermill and fine grinding system to be used as needed to achieve a particle size 1/3 or less of the extruder die hole size.

The process continues with micros added remixing for a good CV, coefficient of variance, sifting and to the extruder. The preconditioner is capable of achieving an extreme high quality moistened and heated mix before the extruder barrel. In fact, the Wenger HIP Conditioner incorporates moisture so well you can’t notice in your hand any stickiness. The extruder barrel added the needed heat and friction to finish the feed into high quality pellets either floating or sinking. Mostly sinking in Egypt due to the polyculture of mullet and tilapia in the same ponds. What makes this system so unique is the use of loss in weight dry ingredient inclusion guaranteeing exact processing conditions with the flow rates remaining constant as set. Back this up with a flow restriction valve at the end of the extruder and you can monitor and control the density while keeping the capacity at its maximum possibility.

Die adjustments in order to get the correct open area per ton produced per hour while making 100 percent sink is what allowed for the elevated capacity. This is also additionally controlled by a density management system which measures the density then feeds back a signal which can adjust the extruder conditions to keep the density in the specification range. This is controlled by screw speed and or

Organic Atlantic salmon farming:

Aquaculture has been established as the most rapidly growing food production sector in the world, increasing by 5.3 per year from 2001 to 2018 (FAO, 2020). In 2019, over 2.5 million tonnes of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) were produced globally. The major key countries in the salmon farming industry are Norway (1.4 million tonnes), Chile (>700,000 t), the UK (190,000 t), Canada (100,000 t), Faroe Islands (95,000 t), Australia (57,000 t), USA (16,000 t) and Ireland (11,000 t) (FAO, 2021). Production of Atlantic salmon is ever increasing as it is one of the most accepted and iconic finfish in the aquaculture realm. Thanks to focused research efforts, the salmon farming industry is constantly gaining a more comprehensive understanding in the areas of salmon physiology, dietary requirements, sustainability, technology, fish health and welfare standards. With sustainability at the forefront of all animal production in recent years, the salmon industry is seeing a shift towards more sustainable production systems (e.g., closed containment or recirculating aquaculture systems, RAS) and/or organic aquaculture.

There has been a recent global shift towards organic agriculture and aquaculture, as it somewhat satisfies consumer concerns surrounding animal welfare and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Driven by the targets of reducing GHG emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 and operating as carbon neutral by 2050 (European Commission, 2022). Organic farming is considered a viable solution to the major GHG emission contributions of conventional agriculture. Organic production also applies to finfish and there are novel methods being developed to accommodate this status for numerous species with Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout leading the way. However, this could potentially limit production of fish due to restrictions, such as reduced stocking densities under organic regulations and therefore production output would need to be increased accordingly to meet current demand (Smith et al., 2019). Worldwide in 2016, organic aquaculture accounted for just 0.5% of the total volume of farmed fish produced. Ireland is the largest organic salmon producer in Europe and the second highest in the world, responsible for almost 10% of the total amount (Gambelli et al., 2019). Canada, the UK (Soil Association certified), the European Union, and Norway all follow the EU organic aquaculture production standard (Hatchery International, 2018; Mowi, 2020; Debio, 2022). The International Federation of

differences in conventional and organic practices

by Aideen E Kearney, Simon J Davies, Alex H L Wan, University of Galway, UK

Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) has created globally recognized standards from which organic certification bodies (OCBs) and scheme owners can adopt (IFOAM, 2021). It has been reported that although consumers typically have limited knowledge of organic aquaculture and its meaning, they still have a positive attitude towards food products (Gambelli et al., 2019). A shift towards organic salmon farming in Chile has begun, as a farm has recently imported its first batch of organically produced ova (EU certified) for on-growing (Fish Farming Expert, 2022).

Regulations for the freshwater phase of the life cycle Atlantic salmon broodstock is stripped of eggs and milt, and together are externally fertilized (Morera et al., 2021). The eggs are then kept in freshwater hatcheries (flow-through, lake pens or RAS) for roughly 250 °days until they develop into eyed ova (Regan et al., 2021). Once hatched, they receive their first feed 300 °days later, and are grown to roughly 100-250 g, as parr (Mowi, 2020). Restrictions in the organic production of salmon juveniles include the strict origin of stock compliance, stocking density limits, daylength using artificial lighting systems, use of oxygen and veterinary treatments. Juveniles must originate from a certified organic broodstock, from a recognized organic certification body (OCB), and have been reared in an organic unit. The stocking densities in freshwater salmon (egg to parr) systems cannot exceed 20 kg m3 and RAS can only be utilised for one-third of the life cycle (up to and including the smoltification process). Artificial lighting must not surpass

Light:Darkness 16:08 (EU Commission, 2018) and L:D 14:10 (Naturland, 2021), except in instances where it is a necessity for reproductive purposes or the smoltification process.

The use of oxygen in the freshwater production phase of

Specialist in the design and build of installations for the grain-processing and compound feed industry

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Atlantic salmon is only allowable for transportation and welfare reasons, health requirements, and at a critical production stage (e.g., handling and chemotherapeutic treatments). In the occurrence of disease, parasitic and/or viral infections, the producer is permitted to administer two allopathic treatments (courses) per year, where a production cycle is <1 year (e.g., juvenile phase), only one treatment is allowed. All treatments must be justified with the relevant prescriptions, and proof of veterinary diagnostic visits, the farmer can vaccinate stock as required, and all chemotherapeutic withdrawal periods must be strictly adhered (IOA, 2022). For disinfecting rearing systems and equipment, there is a list of allowed substances for the presence of organic aquaculture animals (e.g., iodophors (eggs only), calcium carbonate (pH), hydrogen peroxide, organic acids (acetic, lactic, and citric acids) and peracetic acids), and a list for use in the absence of animals (e.g., ozone, sodium hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite and caustic soda) (EU Commission, 2018).

Sea pen farming under organic standards

Salmon smolts are assessed using numerous methods: by surviving the “saltwater challenge;” they have sufficient levels of the Na+/K+ ATPase (NKA) enzyme activities in the gills; immunohistochemistry (gills) or by running tissue samples using qPCR (to measure NKA isoforms in gill). Once parr have successfully adapted to life in a hyperosmotic environment (seawater), the fish will be transferred to marine pens as smolts. The external features of the salmon will also begin to change as they lose their parr markings and spots on the flank, along the lateral line, and their scales turn silver with black tips appearing on the fins.

Salmon are typically vaccinated before sea transfer, and this

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is permissible under organic regulations. This is due to the fact that the majority of viral and bacterial disease clinical outbreaks are in post-smolts and a reduction in the possible requirement of allopathic treatments in stocks down the line. Typical vaccines administered to smolts include pancreas disease (PD), infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN), infectious salmon anaemia (ISA), heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) and cardiomyopathy syndrome (CMS). PD and IPN outbreaks are reportedly still common after vaccination (Jensen et al., 2019). In the case of a clinical diagnosis, two allopathic treatments (including sea lice medicines in extreme and rare cases) are allowed per year, where salmon are rearing pens for typically 14 to 24 months (Mowi, 2020).

Different countries have stocking density limitations based on productivity, fish welfare and efficiency of feed usage, to name a few. The Norwegian salmon farming industry, for example, typically stock each circular pen (50 meters in diameter and 20-50 meters in depth) with a maximum of 200,000 fish at a density of ≤25 kg m3 (Dyrevernallianen, 2019). In the case of organic standards, stocking densities cannot exceed 10 kg m3 in sea pens. Under EU standards, if the site produces >20 tonnes of fish per year, an annual environmental assessment is required based on Annex IV to Council Directive 85/337/EEC (IOA, 2022). This must include any impacts (positive or negative) on the benthos and surrounding ecosystem. The farmer must fallow pens for a minimum 12-month duration after harvesting or transferring fish. The operator should ensure routine checks are carried out by divers to remove dead fish and to examine the structural integrity of the pens, this will help reduce the risk of farm escapees.

Organic vs conventional aquafeeds

A principal element of organic rules is the choice of fish feed ingredients. Fish meal and fish oil should be derived from plant material (e.g., seaweed, algae) and aquatic animal ingredients must be of declared organic origin and from sustainable fisheries. While genetically modified organisms and their derivatives (e.g., soy protein concentrate) are strictly prohibited as feed ingredients (Naturland, 2021, EU

commission, 2018). This difference in the dietary formulation (i.e., use and sources of carotenoids- astaxanthin) can lead to differences in the final harvest compositional profiles of salmon. For instance, the omega-3 fatty acid profile in organic salmon can be different to conventionally farmed fish (Steinnes, Amilien and Vittersø, 2019)which today represents a successful global export market. Starting in 1990, farmers and producers began the production of organic salmon. It was implemented with a heavy focus on environmental sustainability. There are currently two organically certified salmon producers in Norway who are subject to regulations which are intended to limit – or ideally to entirely avoid – environmental harm. In particular, organic certification requires that salmon have larger cages and are fed with organic fish trimmings. Additionally, organic farms must comply with different regulations for vaccination and water oxygen to conventional farms. The resulting organic product is natural in color and has a different structure of omega 3-fat compared to the conventional reference product. The value chain of organic salmon in Norway is highly regulated and is characterized by strong governance at farm level. Furthermore, the farming, processing, and retailing of this supply chain is well integrated as these three levels often overlap. Comparing organic and conventional salmon production across several indicators of economic, social, and environmental sustainability, this chapter offers some insight into both supply chains. Organic salmon performs slightly better in terms of economic sustainability (mostly driven by consumer prices and profitability. According to Naturland’s feed processing standards, permitted feed ingredients include cholesterol, phytoplankton, zooplankton (for larval rearing) and histidine. Histidine produced for animal feed use must be done so by natural fermentation, where its use in the feed is due to other ingredient deficiencies and is required to satisfy the physiological requirements of Atlantic salmon as a specific nutrient for eye health and vision by prevention of cataracts. Low levels of histidine in salmon diets have been shown to cause cataracts (i.e., clouding of the lens), which in turn will affect feeding efficiency (Remo et al., 2014; Naturland, 2021). The use of Astaxanthin (Asx) in aquafeeds is allowed if derived primarily from organic sources, if this is unavailable,

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natural Asx can be used such as Phaffia yeast (IOA, 2022). Asx is generally used to add the red flesh pigmentation in farmed Atlantic salmon (Bjerkeng et al. 1992; Torrissen 1989; Schiedt et al. 1985; Schmeisser et al., 2021). Other known functions of Asx include inhibiting oxidative stress, its role as provitamin A, an antioxidant and reproduction (Schmeisser et al., 2021). Dietary lipid and cholesterol levels, the size of the fish, fibre, and fatty acid composition all affect Asx absorption in salmon (Torrissen 1989; Olsen et al. 2005; Chimsung et al. 2014). This highlights the importance of the exceptions in terms of some conventional feed ingredients. Operators rearing certified organic salmon are subject to an annual inspection (and the possibility of an unannounced audit) by their OCB, including a feed sample to test for any prohibited non-organic compounds.

Advancements and the future of organic farming

As Atlantic salmon is an oily fish species, it is regarded as a high quality and high-value seafood that is being advocated as part of a healthy diet in humans for its omega-3 oils (fatty acids), trace elements (e.g., selenium, magnesium, and iron), vitamins (e.g., niacin, B12, and B6) and antioxidants (e.g., carotenoids, (Tilami and Sampels, 2018). Consequently, this has led to a rise in consumer demand for this salmon and preferably using a sustainable production method. As previously mentioned, culturing of Atlantic salmon under organic standards addresses concerns of the consumer and the farmer in terms of GHG emissions and other environmental risks (Smith et al., 2019). The unregulated use of antibiotics in some conventional salmon farms can pose as a hypothetical threat to surrounding ecosystems as well as potential health risks. Said threats can include biodiversity toxicity, residue accumulation and resistance to pathogenic bacteria (Miranda et al., 2018; Lulijwa et al., 2020; Ahmed et al., 2020). As organic aquaculture is predominantly an ecosystem-based production method, it aims to reduce any environmental impacts as much as possible (IFOAM, 2014; Naturland 2021; Ahmed et al., 2020). The main areas differentiating organic from conventional methods are lower stocking densities and organically formulated aquafeeds, the question must be asked: can organic salmon farming meet the growing production demands of sustainable protein sources? Another area that could be challenged is the use of RAS for the whole life cycle. Currently RAS production, past the smoltification phase in Atlantic salmon, is not compatible with organic regulations as it does not resemble a “closeness to nature” (Kerr and Potthast, 2018). RAS can yield acceptable organic stocking densities, limit environmental impact (i.e., water abstraction and effluent discharged), due to the recycling of nutrients, and RAS are considered to possess high biosecurity measures due to the closed nature of these systems (Meisch and Stark, 2019). With these environmentally friendly components of RAS in mind, it also has the potential to be operated using renewable energy (maybe even carbon neutral) and the possibility of polyculture (e.g., integrated multi-trophic aquaculture and or aquaponics) using the waste nutrients.

Certainly, it is important to consider consumer appreciation for organically produced salmon products and there is a growing demand for sustainable systems in aquaculture. Whether the increased price and margin for these fish is acceptable compared to standard production of farmed salmon remains to be seen. With escalating price of feed in the global market there may be economic constraints for the organic salmon market for the average consumer.

Since January 2022, Aquativ/Diana Aqua became Symrise Aqua Feed.

EXTRUDER AND EXPANDER TECHNOLOGY YOU CAN TRUST

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To realize production within all product-specific guidelines

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Key to boosting shrimp performance, health and sustainability

Low fish meal diets supplemented with AQUAVI® Met-Met and Ecobiol®

by

Farmed shrimp is the most valuable traded seafood commodity in the world by volume, with shrimp production from aquaculture increasing by a staggering 500 percent from 2000 to 2017, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

This rapid growth is partly because of the increasing pressure to meet the protein demand for the growing human population. While farming intensity has increased over the years, keeping a sustainable growth of shrimp production comes with several challenges, including rising feed costs, inconsistent feed quality, health challenges and environmental issues.

Threats to sustainability

More than 70 percent of the fish meal produced globally is consumed by the aquafeed sector, and within this sector the largest amount of fish meal (~1 million metric tonnes) is diverted to producing shrimp feeds (EUMOFA 2021).

Admittedly, the shrimp feed industry still largely relies on finite marine resources. While fish meal has traditionally been the favoured choice of ingredients owing to its excellent nutritional value, it comes at a huge cost as feed accounts for more than 60 percent of shrimp production.

With limited availability of fishmeal and surging feed costs, the industry is continually exploring alternative protein sources and new nutritional strategies to sustain its growth. Although there are several cost-effective plant and alternative animal protein sources available, utilising those ingredients in shrimp feeds requires more precise understandings of their nutritional value, digestibility, palatability, among others.

In current industry diets, methionine is often the first limiting amino acid, followed by lysine and then threonine. While it is easier to nutritionally balance shrimp feeds using supplemental amino acids, not all the sources are nutritionally equal which needs to be considered when formulating diets.

With increasing stock intensity and the pressures derived from diseases, keeping aquatic animals healthy is a huge challenge –especially without the use of antibiotics. Therefore, optimizing growth rates and yields, while minimizing the extent and impact of diseases without the adverse effects associated with chemotherapeutic interventions, is of a paramount importance.

Karthik Masagounder, Evonik Operations GmbH, Germany & Oscar Vazquez, Roberto Santiago, Victor D. Naranjo, Evonik México SA de CV & José R. Gonzalez, Ramón Casillas Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora (ITSON), Cd. Obregón, Sonora, México.

Figure 1: Performance shrimp fed AQUAVI® Met-Met versus DL-Met at 50:100 ratio

Figure 2: Performance shrimp fed Ecobiol® Bacillus amyloliquefaciens based probiotics on the performance of shrimp

Figure 3: Economic analysis based on feed cost to produce 1 kg shrimp indicating all the treatments diets are cheaper than the high fish meal control diet

Unlocking potential of plant-based diets

It is universally accepted that amino acids are essential for shrimp growth and performance, and commercial feeds are supplemented with crystalline amino acids. However, leaching of nutrients is a common problem in shrimp feed because of their nibbling, slow-feeding behavior.

Additionally, when the diets are formulated with more plant ingredients, gut health becomes more of a challenge due to the presence of antinutritional factors and imbalanced gut microbiota, less favoring the beneficial bacteria. However, all these challenges can be mitigated with the right feed additives and strategies in the feed formulation, thus allowing shrimp farmers to capitalize on the benefits of plantbased shrimp feeds.

With decades of science-based expertise in the animal nutrition field, Evonik has developed a portfolio of products aimed at supporting sustainable shrimp aquaculture:

• AQUAVI® Met-Met is a methionine dipeptide that reaches the animal efficiently and slowly with minimal losses in the water, with several studies showing the advantage of this dipeptide source versus others.

• Ecobiol® is a probiotic, consisting of a natural, fastgrowing Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (CECT 5940) that optimizes gut and overall animal health

• AMINOShrimp® is a software tool that helps shrimp farmers to adjust the optimal amino acid composition of the feed to the different life stages of the shrimp.

Feeding trial

We investigated the effects of supplementing AQUAVI® Met-Met and Ecobiol® in the diets of shrimp on their performance. The specific objectives of the trial were to evaluate the growth performance of shrimp using various formulation strategies including:

i) A reduction of dietary fishmeal level from 20 percent to 10 percent while maintaining the ideal amino acid (AA) profile

ii) Supplementation of AQUAVI® Met-Met with only half that of DL-Met to validate its 200 percent min bioeffcacy compared with DL-Met

iii) Increasing the ratios of sulphur amino acid (SAA) to lysine to match AMINOShrimp® recommendations

iv) Supplementing Ecobiol® in the low fishmeal diets.

Six different diets were formulated to assess the various objectives (Table 1). Diet 1 had greater levels of fishmeal (20 percent) and did not include any amino acid supplementation.

Diets 2 and 3 were prepared by reducing fishmeal from 20% to 10% and balancing the diets for the essential AAs and other nutrients using supplemental sources; Diet 2 was supplemented with 0.13% DL-Met, and Diet 3 was supplemented with 0.06% Met-Met to evaluate the min 200% relative bio efficacy of MetMet vs DL-Met.

Diet 4 was the same as Diet 3 except that Met-Met supplementation was increased to match its TSAA: Lys ratios to Evonik’s AMINOShrimp® recommendations.

Diets 5 and 6 were prepared by supplementing Diets 2 and 3 with 0.1% Ecobiol®, respectively.

Each diet was randomly allotted to four replicate tanks and each tank contained 20 shrimp.

The feeding trial lasted eight weeks and the diets were selectively compared to evaluate the different objectives.

Trial results

From the findings of the trial, we determined that reducing

Note: * Expressed as % of the diet cost of the high FM diet **200% Met value was considered for AQUAVI® Met-Met supplementation

*Calculated based on biomass gain

fishmeal from 20 percent (D1) to 10 percent (D2) while maintaining amino acid levels did not affect shrimp performance, while considerably reducing feed formulation costs (Table 2). What did make a greater impact on performance was replacing 100 parts of DL-Met with 50 parts of AQUAVI® Met-Met, suggesting a biological efficiency (BE) greater than 200 percent (Figure 1).

Increasing the ratios of TSAA:lysine improved shrimp biomass gains by 20% and feed conversion ratios by eight points (D3 vs. D4) (Table 1)

Supplementing the diets with Ecobiol®, regardless of Met source, significantly improved body weight, biomass gain and feed intake (Figure 2)

In analysing the impact of feed supplementation on shrimp growth and performance, we also examined the economic impact of the changes on shrimp performance. As can be seen in the graph below, the results revealed that all treatment diets were cheaper than the high fish meal control diet, with the maximum economic returns coming from the low fishmeal diets supplemented with a combination of AQUAVI® Met-Met and Ecobiol®.

In addition, further economic analysis revealed that MetMet supplementation in D4 and Ecobiol® and Met-Met supplementation in D6 are the most profitable diets, with income over the feed cost being greater than 60 percent.

Table 1: Formulations of six experimental diets used in an eight-week shrimp feeding trial

Table 2. Performance of shrimp fed the experimental diets over an eight-week period.

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SCOTLAND’S STr ENGTH IN AQuACuLTur E

Report highlights Scotland’s strength in aquaculture, animal health and agri-tech

Aresearch report which is an outcome of SEFARI Fellowship project has identified more than 200 companies, research centres and academic partners as key stakeholders in the aquaculture, animal health and agri-tech (AAA) sector in Scotland. The sector is important to both the life sciences and technology sectors and underpins the country’s high performing food and drink industry.

The future AAA landscape was also explored, with multiple new centres, hubs and new trial facilities planned over the coming years, showing the vast expansion and investment in this area. A fellowship was set up to increase the understanding of and identify strengths and opportunities for the AAA sector in Scotland. It was funded by the Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutes (SEFARI) in partnership with the Scottish Life Sciences Industry Leadership Group and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). HIE is the economic and community development agency for the North and West of Scotland, funded by the Scottish Government.

The fellowship has provided a greater understanding of Scotland’s world leading core capabilities and international assets within AAA and amplifies the voice of this fastgrowing sector which is at the heart of the green and circular economies.

And that is exactly where the biggest opportunity for the sector has been identified: the development of sustainable production systems, both in aquaculture and agriculture, to support green recovery and the circular economy. Scotland’s net zero ambitions will be supported by innovations in the AAA sector - utilising digital, data and low carbon technologies to best effect.

Food security, Brexit and Covid are explored as challenges for the sector

Alongside the report, SEFARI fellow Dr Jenna Bowen, from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), created an inventory by mapping what currently exists in the sector across Scotland, and

analysed a survey of key stakeholders.

The inventory provides an overview of the vast breadth and expertise within the sector across academic institutes, companies, innovation centres, networks and consortiums, charities, government and development agencies, and business gateways and venture studios.

A large proportion of identified stakeholder are based around the central belt and the Highlands of Scotland. The report also includes a list of trial facilities, both animal and crop, which exist across Scotland and contribute to Scotland’s world leading research within the AAA Sector. Aquaculture featured strongly in the report and several research institutes contribute to the knowledge base.

For The University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) aquaculture is a key research theme and their Aquaculture Hub brings together our aquaculture researchers, educators, consultants, students, and facilities to create and support innovation in aquaculture. Their expertise and services include sustainable aquafeeds, seaweed research, diversification of aquaculture practices (including integrated multi-trophic aquaculture), environment-aquaculture interface, health and welfare, modelling using predictive tools (including monitoring of harmful algal blooms, stock improvement and management. One key institute is the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), Scotland’s oldest and largest independent marine science organisation, delivering marine science research and development. They host a seaweed nursery and farm, the Scottish Marine Robotics Facility operating the latest smart technologies for marine research, and the Culture collection of algae and protozoa offering the most diverse collection of its kind in the world.

The University of Stirling has expertise in sustainable aquaculture and food security through its Institute of Aquaculture. The Institute of Aquaculture is home to one of the largest concentrations of aquaculture expertise in Europe and one of the largest of its kind in the world. The Institute has a range of scientific expertise including genetics, sustainable aquaculture, disease and health, genetics and reproduction and nutrition. Specialist facilities include a Marine Environmental Research Laboratory (commercial scale marine hatchery nursery and

by Dr Andrea McColl, Senior Development Manager Life Sciences at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Inverness, Scotland, UK

growing unit) and a Freshwater Research Unit. The University of Aberdeen hosts the International Centre for Aquaculture Research and Development (ICARD) offering extensive expertise in fish nutrition, feed formulations, infection trials, immunology and vaccine development, pathogen

interactions. The Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre at the university also addresses both fundamental and applied issues for fish health including gene discovery and vaccine development in collaboration with University of Stirling and Marine Scotland Science.

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The AAA sector is developing fast and new aquaculture developments are supported by several innovation centres, they key ones being:

The Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) provides funding and support for commercially relevant and collaborative research in the aquaculture sector by connecting businesses and academics. SAIC is one of eight Scottish innovation centres to drive growth in key economic and social importance and has >100 consortium members.

The Agri-Epi Centre focusses on collaborations using innovation, technology and precision engineering for UK farming. Agri-EPI, in conjunction with Otter Ferry Seafish, has recently established a new industry-led R&D facility in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland. The new facility, co-funded by Innovate UK, provides capacity for developing innovative production technologies for diverse marine aquaculture species, including salmon to near market size. The facility is configured to undertake a wide range of studies, such as evaluating feeds and pharmaceuticals, instrumentation testing and validation of operational welfare indicators.

The report also showcases the Scottish business base that forms the supply chain for the AAA sector, supporting production companies with new technologies and services.

For example, a start-up from the University of GlasgowSalmoSim - offers in vitro systems and facilities for aquafeed nutrition, veterinary pharmaceuticals and microbiome assessments. The company uses an innovation simulator of the salmon gastro-intestinal tract to assess digestibility, absorption, pro- and pre-biotic action.

Aqualife Services, based in Stirling, Norway and Portugal,

are a leader in fish care and vaccination services. They have developed a multi species, multi vaccination, semi-automated vaccination solution, which uses robotics, automation and artificial intelligence.

International companies are represented too, including two aquaculture feed and nutrition companies - BioMar and Cargill Aqua Nutrition (EWOS) – and two fish health companies –Patogen and PHARMAQ Analytiq (Zoetis).

Conclusion

As mentioned above, the report is the output of a SEFARI Fellowship project aiming to increase the understanding of the AAA sector in Scotland and improve understanding of opportunities and challenges facing the sector.

SEFARI, the Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutes, is a consortium of six globally renowned research institutes: Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland, The James Hutton Institute, Moredun Research Institute, The Rowett Institute, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and Scotland’s Rural College.

As SEFARI, these institutes deliver the Scottish Government funded Strategic Research Programme, which addresses key mid to longer-term challenges for Scotland’s environment, agriculture, land use, food and rural communities.

SEFARI Gateway Fellowships are bespoke opportunities codesigned with key partners to deliver solutions to priority needs that also meet Scottish Government National Outcomes and aligned United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The report and inventory can be downloaded from the Life Sciences in Scotland website https://lcshome.directories.scot/

Product Spotlight - The Samplex CS90 Bulk Truck Sampling Probe

Samplex is the UK's leading brand on the truck probe market, with many of the originally manufactured machines still in use worldwide today. The Samplex CS90 is robust, reliable, highly adaptable, and able to provide a truly representative sample of a bulk load.

The entire Samplex range of bulk samplers uses time proven electro-mechanical technology, completely eliminating the use of hydraulics and the associated risks of pressure hoses splitting, which could contaminate valuable loads.

Wide Range of Products

The C S90 and Unispear system is unique in its ability of being able to accurately sample, without modification, a range of dry powders including meal and flour, small seeds such as oilseed rape and linseed, plus cereals, maize, sorghum, soya beans, rice, pulses and animal feed pellets up to 16mm x 30mm. Due to the clever design of the spear, it is possible to vary the amount of product sampled to help to prevent excess product building up in the laboratory

More representative Sample Samplex truck probes deliberately don't use the more common and potentially flawed method of suction to collect product, as this has been demonstrated to possibly bias the collected sample with dust. Instead, they use positive air in conjunction with cyclonic action, and the design of the Unispear probe allows the product to fall directly into the airflow under gravity, and therefore provide a smaller, but importantly, more representative sample. Uniquely, Samplex fit all their probes with a twin variable aperture, to allow more or less product to be sampled as required.

The 340° rotation and telescopic arm allows for the variable sampling patterns required to meet ISO 24333:2009(E) standards.

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NOT JUST A FISH Protecting your Business Ideas and Assets

by Katherine Hawes, Principal Solicitor, Aquaculture Lawyers, Australia

Your business ideas and assets are what make your aquaculture business personal, identifiable, and robust. Just like one might use secret ingredients or techniques to make a delicious fish dish, your business ideas and assets are what make your business special.

As such, it is vital to seek out ways to protect your business’s assets. In particular, trademarks and business-focused estate plans are two of the strongest and most affordable ways to ensure that you protect your business ideas and assets.

Trademarks protect your brand and image by ensuring that no other company or individual can use those marks of your business. It also means that consumers will not be confused regarding your product and services. This is why trademarks have value.

Recently we acted for an international company who took action against their competition for breaching their trademark being the brand name of the product. The competition was hash tagging the name on Instagram which directed traffic to their business. Without a trademark the company would have had a harder case to stop the use of the name.

What is a Trademark?

Many business owners have heard of the term ‘trademark’ but do not fully understand what it means - it is essentially a form of legal protection that can be placed on things such as words, images, phrases, scents, and sounds, among other things. In some cases, it can even be the shape of your product, for instance the Coco Cola bottle shape is trademarked.

Trademarks identify specific products or services as belonging to a particular person or business, giving that person or business exclusive rights of that content. Therefore, a trademark ensures

that another business cannot use assets of your business, such as names and images.

Trademarks can be registered in each country and then through the Vienna Convention in different countries around the world.

The Trademark Process

Whatever country you are in the first step is a National Trademark so you can then progress to an International Trademark.

In Australia, trademark applications are processed through the Australian Government ‘IP Australia’ website.

Any Trademark application process commences with us searching what you want to trademark in the relevant IP Trademark Database. Doing this will allow you to confirm whether someone else has already trademarked your asset.

When filling out the trademark application, we have two options. The first is a standard trademark application. Standard

applications are initially reviewed at a slower pace while awaiting the trademark assessor to provide feedback.

The second application option in Australia is referred to as Headstart Application which are more expensive than standard applications. However, you receive feedback on your application within 5 days and are given the opportunity to adjust your trademark before it moves on to the next step.

In both cases, we must select which classes your trademark will cover. There are 45 classes to choose from in Australia that cover around 60,000 different goods and services. It is essential to understand what classes you need as each new class you add to your trademark adds a new level of protection but also makes the application more expensive.

Once you submit your application and pay the required fee, your trademark will be reviewed by the relevant assessment body in your country to determine if it meets the legislative requirements outlined in your business’ country of origin.

Getting your trademark application to meet the legislative standard is imperative as the trademark assessor will provide you with an adverse report.

If the trademark does meet the legislative requirements, then it will go through a process of being filed, advertised, and then finalised. It can take several months before a trademark is officially confirmed and protected by the relevant governing body in each country.

Maintaining Your Trademark

Once you have gained a trademark through a transfer or application, it is essential to understand how to maintain the Trademark through renewals.

A trademark has an initial lifespan. After that time, the trademark will need to be renewed through the relevant governing body by completing a physical ‘renewal of registration form’ and paying the relevant fee.

There is no limit to the number of times you can renew a trademark. It is important to keep up with trademark renewals in order to avoid paying unnecessary overdue fees or losing your trademark rights.

It is also important to regularly review the relevant governing body trademark Database for trademarks that might be similar to your own. If you believe a new trademark may be overly similar to your current trademark, you have the opportunity to oppose the new trademark during its advertisement period. This will begin proceedings in which each party will need to argue their position for determination of that Trademark.

Passing on Your Assets

Other than through trademarks, which are a business asset,

a business’s assets can also be protected through proper estate planning. If you are a sole trader, then any assets held by the business are your personal assets.

Therefore, in order to protect the assets of your business after you die, it is essential to stipulate what you would like done with your business and its assets in your Will. This does not only relate to your business’s tangible assets, but also its intangible assets like social media, online accounts, and trademarks.

An Enduring Power of Attorney is also an essential document used to protect your business assets. A EPoA allows for others to make financial and legal decisions in your stead should you become medically incapacitated. This can be in the form of a usual EPoA, or you can set-up a Corporate Power of Attorney and nominate the required decision-maker/s in case you become incapacitated.

This Can Be Complicated!

At Aquarius Lawyers, we can assist you in any asset protection and intellectual property matters relating to your aquaculture business. We can advise you on what areas of your business need to be trademarked and outlined in your estate plan in order to protect your most prominent assets. We also advise on the transfer and maintenance of trademarks after you sell or purchase a business.

Theft of your business assets by competitors is a costly business to address, both in terms of recovery of the assets as well as the disruption to your business.

With our keen understanding of asset protection, we can ensure your business is protected at every stage of its development.

FISH FARMING TECHNOLOGY Tech update

New salmon pen concept

Northern Lights Salmon and Sørrollnesfisk together with AKVA group launched Egersund Net and Framo OptiCage, a new pen concept against salmon lice. The battle against lice preoccupies most people in the fish farming industry. For the first time, the lice skirts can be lowered to 15 meters to block the lice out, while pumps bring up fresh, oxygen-rich seawater from the depths. The goal of OptiCage is to use existing equipment to create a concept against salmon lice that can be used at many of today's food fish locations. In the design phase, much of the focus has been on finding practical solutions to ensure simple assembly and safe operation. In addition to protecting against salmon lice, the salmon must have good growth and living conditions throughout the cage. n the development, the fish farmers together with AKVA group Egersund Net and Framo have looked at how experience and expertise with almost standard products can be used to optimise pen conditions. The testing of the technology is supported by Innovation Norway's Environmental Technology Scheme.

Artificial Inteligence & the cleaner fish

by The Sustainable Aquaculture

A new video tool will reveal the best candidates for one of the most important jobs in salmon aquaculture, as researchers in Scotland explore how to pick out the bold and brave cleaner fish from the bashful.

The project, led by the University of Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture, Swansea University and Otter Ferry Seafish, will look at the best ways to identify high-performing ballan wrasse and lumpfish using artificial intelligence (AI) and imaging technology. The consortium has received funding from the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) and will be supported by Loch Duart, Bakkafrost Scotland, Ocean Matters and Visifish – a machine vision company.

A previous SAIC-funded study proved that bolder ballan wrasse are likely to be a better fit for the job of picking sea lice from salmon. The bolder fish showed no hesitation when presented with foreign objects in their tanks, and the research team is now exploring how to use this type of test at a commercial scale.

The first stage of the project involves categorising the different traits – such as boldness, shyness, social interaction and even aggression – and seeing how the range of personalities perform at picking sea lice from salmon. Insights will then be integrated with imaging technology, which could be widely used by seafood producers to routinely monitor behaviour and welfare of cleaner fish.

Like some job interviews, there will also be a group challenge with researchers monitoring how ballan wrasse and lumpfish with different personalities respond in social groups.

Dr Adam Brooker, research fellow in aquatic animal behaviour at the University of Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture, says, “We produce cleaner fish for a specific job, so it makes sense to develop an appropriate selection process based on the different personality traits we know can influence delousing. With this new information, we can modify the rearing environment to encourage delousing behaviour and select good delousers for breeding future generations.

Cleaner fish trial looks to AI and imaging technology to help pick best delousers

Innovation Centre (SAIC)

“Being able to identify the best delousers, based on behaviour, could lead to significant improvements in the health and welfare of salmon and a reduction in the number of cleaner fish used. Seeing how cleaner fish behave when cohabiting will also help us understand how these fish interact with each other so we can account for this once they are integrated into producers' sites.”

With a new standardised personality test, the fish most likely to be the best at removing sea lice from salmon can be identified for future breeding programmes. The results of the project will also be used to adapt hatchery procedures and the rearing environment to encourage juvenile cleaner fish develop the desired traits.

Field trials are expected to take place next year with the camera system tested with current cleaner fish populations at Loch Duart and Bakkafrost Scotland sites. Dr Eduardo Jimenez Fernandez, R&D manager at Otter Ferry Seafish, says, “So far, the research points towards bold cleaner fish being better delousers. However, the data is limited and a more robust model is needed for categorising and identifying such personality traits. This project combines global behavioural expertise and will provide valuable information that could guide future selective breeding programmes.”

Heather Jones, CEO at SAIC, adds, “Studying the behaviour of cleaner fish is providing a new and interesting take on how the sector cares for and uses ballan wrasse and lumpfish to the best of their abilities. Different personalities are naturally better suited to different jobs among humans, so it is fascinating to see the same is true of these species. Building on previous SAIC-backed research and further combining academic and sector expertise, the development of new camera-based technology could be transformational for the sector's approach to using cleaner fish.”

TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE

Innovations this month

February 2023

In this month’s Product Showcase we address water quality in aquaculture, which is particularly crucial in RAS facilities, including a drain waste collection system, a smart monitoring system and a UV disinfection system, all to improve water quality in fish farming.

If you would like your product or service to appear in this section in a future edition of International Aquafeed and Fish Farming Technology magazine, then please contact us at editorial@perendale.co.uk

Flygt Hydro Turbines by Xylem

The Flygt Hydro Turbines are easy to install and maintain, with submersible hydro power. Efficient and reliable, these turbines are also invisible and quiet.

All generators are fully submersible (IP68) to a depth of at least 65 feet (20 m). Long-life bearings as well as class H insulated generators provide extended operational lifetime. With temperature sensors in the stator winding and main bearing, as well as leakage sensors in the stator housing and cable entry, the generator can be monitored for problems early, before they become severe.

The runners are available with four or five blades and are available in either aluminium, bronze or stainless steel. The blade angle can be manually set in one degree increments.

Four or five different fixed guide vane angles are available to provide optimal performance over a wide range.An easily replicable wear ring in aluminium bronze or stainless steel will maintain high efficiency.

www.xylem.com

Learn more – Learn onsite Enroll in the 12-week Course

MT - Paddle Coating Machine by PLP Systems

The MT Paddle Coating Machine by PLP Systems allows you to apply additives and ingredients after mechanical and thermal processes without ruining their physical properties. It reduces the risk of crosscontamination in the production line, as well as the consumption of liquid additives with a consequent economic saving. The machine is also suitable for large flow rates.

The coating system MT is a complete machine able to mix in-line pellets, kibbles, and other granulated products with additives such as liquid enzymes, fat, digest, aromas, oil, medicines, vitamins, etc. The machine is used in combination with the powerful sprayer MicroSMOG and guarantees a perfect coating of the product. Paddles are tiltable for a better performance of the machine.

http://plp-systems.com

FISH FARMING TECHNOLOGY

Riverwatcher Fish Counter by Faivre

The Riverwatcher currently counts and monitors migration patterns of fish in over 500 rivers worldwide, in fish ladders, weirs, and passes. The infrared scan and high-resolution camera technology give you the ability to know your river and compare fish migration patterns year over year. Pair a Biomark PIT Tag antenna system with the Riverwatcher and you will add unique identification to the counting and monitoring capabilities. The Riverwatcher is installed in fish ladders, pools, traps or similar places where the fish in a river have to pass. When a fish swims through the scanner, the resulting silhouette image is used to count and estimate the size of each fish. The Riverwatcher software is used to analyse and present the data from the fish counter. It is possible to examine the migration pattern of fish over a particular period, by size groupings or for a particular time of day.

www.biomark.com

SHOWCASE

Net cleaning Rigs by AKVA Group

AKVA Net Cleaners uses rotating cleaning discs mounted on cleaning rigs in various shapes and combinations. AKVA uses rugged, tailor-made highpressure pumps to drive the cleaning discs.

The cleaning process starts with submerging the rig on the inside of the net, using only sea water under high pressure. Cleaning Systems does not use chemicals or scrubbing action. This is environmentally friendly and will not damage the nets.

The cleaning discs are generally delivered with 40 cm diameter. They can also be offered in 30 cm or 50 cm diameter. A movable camera on the rig makes it possible to zoom in on details and provides full control of the washing process.

All Net cleaners are offered with a smooth front rail in stainless steel that ensures minimal wear of the net. All Net cleaners are offered with a smooth front rail in stainless steel that ensures minimal wear of the net.

www.akvagroup.com

Open Channel PP UV disinfection systems by UltraAqua

The Open Channel PP from UltraAqua series offers safe, chemical-free disinfection for a wide range of aquaculture applications.

The vertical PP lamp banks specifically excel in intensive aquaculture applications, such as recirculation (RAS) and flow-through treatment performance where rearing of certain species requires saline environments. The polypropylene (PP) material makes the Open Channel series the right choice for saline and highly corrosive environments, as it possesses excellent resilience to temperature fluctuation, chemicals, and salts, ideal for the disinfection of warm salt water and other corrosive fluids.

The lamp bank frame allows a wide selection of depths and widths, making the systems customisable to fit into virtually any channel dimension. Additionally, the dry top compartment allows for easy and quick standard maintenance procedures and can be done without removing the lamp bank from the water. https://ultraaqua.com

Krill meal based shrimp feed

Research suggests krill meal is key to costeffective and nutrient-rich shrimp feed formulation

by Instituto de Ciências do Mar, Brazil (Labomar) and Aker BioMarine

Scientists behind a recently released review article conclude that krill meal is an effective functional ingredient for shrimp feed that can mitigate some of the challenges related to the stagnating supply of fish meal, including nutrition and growth performance, while remaining cost effective for producers.

“Across the aquaculture industry, we are seeing changing feed formulations due to supply challenges and cost pressure. For shrimp farmers, this means that they need to take a new approach to their feed formulations and find the right ingredients to maintain high nutrition, growth performance and overall cost-effectiveness, while keeping sustainability top of mind,” says Lena Burri, Director R&D for Animal Nutrition and Health at Aker BioMarine.

A functional ingredient that stimulates growth and health

The Labomar and Aker BioMarine review emphasises the need to address the risk for missing essential nutrients in the dietary feed formulations for shrimp. Krill meal, as a functional feed ingredient, has shown through previous research that it can improve attractability, palatability and general health in shrimp.

“Besides its well-balanced amino acid profile, krill meal is rich in phospholipid-bound omega-3 fatty acids and adds further value to the feed due to its high levels of astaxanthin and choline, all of which are important for shrimp development at various life stages. In recent years, krill meal has become one of the most studied feeding effectors for shrimp,” says MsBurri.

Modern shrimp aquaculture is dependent on the provision of industrially manufactured compounded feeds to sustain its consistent rate of expansion in production. Practical shrimp feeds contain crude protein (CP) levels ranging between 25 percent and 40 percent (on a fed basis) higher than those used for farmed land animals (poultry, swine and livestock). Feed mills need to rely on continuous and constant availability of high protein ingredients obtained mainly from capture fisheries, agriculture and animal rendering.

According to the review article, krill meal is an increasingly well-recognised ingredient in the aquaculture industry due to its feed attractant and palatability enhancer capabilities. In previous research, krill meal has been studied alongside other marine ingredients, from salmon meal to squid meal, and has consistently proven to be the most effective at increasing the feed intake and improving the overall growth performance in both shrimp and fish. here have been numerous investigations in the area of shrimp nutrient requirements, which has allowed nutritionists to better formulate on a least-cost basis. The major setback when fish meal is reduced is often noted at the farm level through a declining shrimp growth performance. Farmers often try to compensate slower shrimp growth rates with greater feed inputs which raises FCR, production costs and leads to a higher load of nutrients in water. However, replacement of fish meal

Aquaculture case study

for alternate ingredients can be overturned, as long as formulation can be optimised to account for all the essential nutrients on a digestible basis.

Cost optimisation is possible with krill meal in the feed 'The dietary feed represents one of the main cost elements in shrimp production, which makes optimization of the feed formulation critical for producers. We have seen through years of study that including just three percent krill meal in the shrimp diet can reduce feed cost and improve performance and feed intake in fish meal-challenged diets,' explains Alberto Nunes, Professor and Aquaculture Nutritionist, Labomar.

“Our theory is that the growth enhancement factors that we've seen in our previous studies of krill meal for shrimp is due to the balance between krill's high feed attractiveness and stimulation with its contribution of key nutrients,” adds Mr Nunes.

Industry Events

Status updates for industry events amidst global effects of COVID-19

2023

2023 February

8-9

Seagriculture Conference

Asia-Pacific Online

https://seagriculture-asiapacific.com

2023 March

7

7th Annual Aquafeed Extrusion Conference

Bangkok, Thailand

https://aqfeed.info/e/1697

The 7th Annual Aquafeed Extrusion conference has returned for another year partnering with VIV and Texas University. Mark the calendars for the 7th of March at VIV Asia as the one-day conference will be held the day before the event begins in the IMPACT Arena. This rendition of the conference will specialise in extrusion and the related equipment for aquatic feeds. The one-day conference will feature a variety of industry expert speakers delivering innovative presentations on how users can make the best use of their extrusion machinery and aqua feed systems. It is an excellent educational opportunity so take advantage and register here- https://aqfeed.info/e/1713

7

Aquatic Asia

Bangkok, Thailand

https://aquafeed.co.uk/events/ aquatic-asia-2023/

International Aquafeed magazine would like to invite you to the next edition of Aquatic Asia Conference series on March 7th, 2023 in Bangkok Thailand.

2023 April

18-21

LAQuA 23

Panama City, Panama

www.was.org

20-21

r ASTech

Lord, USA

www.ras-tec.com

2023

May

29-1

World Aquaculture 2023

Darwin, Australia

www.was.org

15-16

AQuAFArM Pordenone, Italy

www.aquafarm.show

23-26

Aquaculture America 2023

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA www.was.org

Aquaculture America 2023 returns to one of the favorite tourist spots in the world for the only major national aquaculture conference and exposition held in the U.S. The U.S. Aquaculture Society (formerly U.S. Chapter of WAS) joins with National Aquaculture Association and the Aquaculture Suppliers Association to produce the annual Aquaculture America meetings.

The Conference is also the site for meetings organized by the Aquacultural Engineering Society, Aquatic Drug Approval Coalition, US Trout Farmers Association, Zebrafish Husbandry Association and many more associations to make Aquaculture America 2023 the one meeting in the U.S. that you don’t want to miss!

A critical trade show for Aquaculturists Aquaculture America 2023 will have the largest aquaculture trade show in the Western Hemisphere and one of the largest anywhere in the world with nearly 200 booths! This is your opportunity to inspect the latest in products and services for the aquaculture industry. It is the place to visit current suppliers and make new contacts. To keep ahead and to keep profits building, you need to keep pace with the technological advancements in the industry

28-1

5th Algae World Europe

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

www.cmtevents.com

Aquatic Asia is a one-day conference program featuring a variety of industry experts delivering brilliant presentations about the latest updates in both fish and shrimp nutrition.

8-10

VIV Asia 2023

Nonthaburi, Thailand www.vivasia.nl

10

build My Feedmill Conference

Bangkok, Thailand mymag.info/e/1326

2023 June

21-22

Seagriculture Conference Eu 2023

Trondheim, Norway

https://seagriculture.eu

2023 July

8-10

VIV Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

www.vivturkey.com

28 - 30

AquaFuture

Santiago, Spain

https://en.aquafuturespain.com/

2023 August

23-25

Aqua Nor Trondheim, Norway

https://aquanor.no

AlgaEurope successfully returns as recordbreaking in-person conference in Rome!

This year's edition of AlgaEurope, the annual conference presenting scientific findings and trends in the algae and seaweed sector, attracted 425 delegates - a record in the history of the event – hailing from 44 countries. The first in-person event after a two-year hiatus, AlgaEurope, which took place at the Ergife Palace Hotel in Rome, Italy, 13-15 December 2022, offered a three-day program delivered by more than 90 expert speakers, covering scientific, technological and business-related topics in the global algae biomass sector.

With plenary sessions addressing numerous topics, including seaweed sources and applications, process, physiology, Biorefinery, feed, bio stimulant, genetics, Process, Bioremediation, Biomaterial among others, AlgaEurope is one of the most comprehensive conferences in its field.

“AlgaEurope has this year attracted 425 delegates which is a first in the history of the conference. The feedback we have received suggests that meeting up at an in-person venue where we use all five senses is highly valuable to accurately assess the merit of solutions and trends. We are pleased that so many experts recognise this,” says Kuno Jacobs, Managing Director of DLG Benelux.

Sharing their expertise and insight in the algae industry, experts

from companies and renowned knowledge institutes explored numerous topics, from the use of 3D printers for seaweed snacks, how to determine anti-microbial and anti-diabetic compounds from seaweed to low-cost microalgae harvesting. Company presentations and the Mentor's Evening were part of the special features.

“The Scientific Committee was overwhelmed with proposals for topics this year. Never before have we had 289 abstracts submitted to the conference. This just goes to show not only that scientific research in Algae is currently high but also that an in-person venue is the preferred way to share new knowledge,” says Jean-Paul Cadoret, President of EABA.

The organisers of AlgaEurope, European Algae Biomass Association (EABA) and DLG Benelux, had invited the highcalibre keynote speakers, Paul G. Falkowski from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA; Sammy Boussiba from Ben Gurion University, Israel; and Alison Smith from University of Cambridge, UK, who each opened one conference day with an outstanding presentation. The main target of EABA is to act as a catalyst for fostering synergies among scientists, industrialists, and decision-makers in order to promote the development of research, technology, and industrial capacities in the field of Algae. DLG

STORE SMART STORE SQUARE

Location: Moudon, Switzerland

Product: Grains and seeds

Check out our references:

“By building some of the cells one above the other, the maximum flexibility has been raised to an even higher level.”

The Future Awaits

Built on partnership and innovation, Wenger is providing more opportunities for client success.

For almost a century, Wenger has delivered extrusion-based innovations to our partners. We’ve worked alongside you to develop new processing solutions and better products, providing our industry-leading expertise and ongoing support every step of the way.

We don’t plan on stopping any time soon.

Wenger’s global food processing family is growing, and we look forward to the exciting opportunities that lie ahead. We will continue to deliver even more innovations and technologies to benefit companies that share our vision of tomorrow.

Wenger.com

GEPRO has developed into a constant and successful player in the aquafeed and the petfood industry for more than 50-year history and always meet challenges with innovative solutions.

Our head office and production site is located in Diepholz, Lower Saxony - in the immediate vicinity of the largest poultry production and processing facilities in Germany.

In addition to our headquarters in Diepholz, GEPRO has other locations around the world for your best possible service. Consistency and a high degree of reliability are essential.

Already some years ago our logo appeared in a new design. This is now also incorporated in our product portfolio. Consistency, innovation and a high degree of reliability are essential.

Benelux is part of DLG International: the leading German consulting company of the DLG group for the Agribusiness and Food Industry offering international expertise in setting up trade fairs and providing project management and consultancy services - national and international.

Algae have become a multi-billion sector in terms of biotechnology development that is expected to grow rapidly, providing valuable goods and services in multiple applications. In spite of centuries of scientific and commercial interests, the term algae has no taxonomic meaning. In the light of rapidly growing business interests associated with the term algae, a clear, simple definition of algae is not only required but essential for developing the necessary standards, and regulatory and legal issues.

In addition to the in-person presentations taking place at the venue in Rome, some 148 scientific authors presented their work in the poster area, a central zone at the conference

centre, which also offered a trade show area with some 20 companies presenting their projects as exhibits.

Sponsors of this year included Algalif, Platinum Sponsor; A4F – Algafuel, Green Aqua, Fluid Air, Microphyt, SCHOTT, silver sponsors; and Fermentalg, Livegreen and SANI Membranes, each long standing supporter, this year as bronze sponsors.

The next AlgaEurope conference will be held in Prague, 12 – 14 December 2023.

AquaFarm 2023: Energy and water resources are among the main topics of the next edition

Only a few months to the sixth edition of AquaFarm, the main exhibition on aquaculture, shellfish farming and sustainable fishing of the Mediterranean basin and Southern Europe, organised by Pordenone Fiere in co-operation with API (Italian fish farmers association) and AMA (Mediterranean fish farmers association), taking place from February 15-16.

The event brings together the entire production and trade chain of the aquaculture sector: according to FAO, fish and shellfish farming represent today one of the most strategically important food production activities worldwide, one of the very few that can provide healthy and nutritious food for the growing global population without affecting ecosystems.

The exhibition area will be combined with a rich programme of conferences and meetings dedicated to the most important topics

in Research & Innovation fields. Among the issues, there are two major challenges: the climate change, including the relevant water deficit, and the energy issue. The conference programme is complemented by special events and workshops organised by some of the largest European-funded research programmes, featuring Italian and international institutions, universities and companies.

"AquaFarm has already confirmed to have overcome the pandemic shock, considering that the last edition was visited by more than 2000 professionals from 40 countries”, affirms Renato Pujatti, President of Pordenone Fiere. "The next edition marks the beginning of a new phase - in an era that is perhaps even more uncertain - but aware to setting the stage for a sector that is crucial for the short, medium, and long term future of the planet."

aquafeed.co.uk/web/companies

Welcome to the market place, where you will find suppliers of products and services to the industry - with help from our friends at The International Aquafeed Directory (published by Turret Group)

Aerators

Air products

Faivre

+ 33 3idah 81 84 01 32

www.faivre.fr

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1603

Kaeser Kompressoren

+49 9561 6400

www.kaeser.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1035

Additives

Dibaq

+34 921 574 286

https://dibaqacuicultura.es

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1604

DSM

+43 2782 8030

www.dsm.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1605

Evonik

+49 618 1596785

www.evonik.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1606

Jefo

+1 450 799 2000

https://jefo.ca

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1607

Liptosa +34 902 157711

www.liptosa.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1608

ORFFA

+32 479 50 09 08

https://orffa.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1278

Phibro

+972 4 629 1833

www.phibro-aqua.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1609

Analysis

SAS Laboratories Phode

+33 5 63 77 80 60

www.phode.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1644

R-Biopharm +44 141 945 2924

www.r-biopharm.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1645

Romer Labs +43 2272 6153310

www.romerlabs.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1610

Amino acids

Bulk storage

Evonik +49 618 1596785

www.evonik.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1606

Silo Construction & Engineering +32 51723128

www.sce.be

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1611

Symaga

+34 91 726 43 04

www.symaga.com

aqfeed.info/e/1647

TSC Silos +31 543 473979

www.tsc-silos.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1612

Conveyors

Cablevey Conveyors +1 641 673 8451

https://cablevey.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1613

Vigan Enginnering +32 67 89 50 41

www.vigan.com

aqfeed.info/e/1648

Computer software

Inteqnion

+31 543 49 44 66

www.inteqnion.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1277

Coolers & driers

Bühler AG

+41 71 955 11 11

www.buhlergroup.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1614

Consergra s.l

+34 938 772207

www.consergra.com

aqfeed.info/e/1650

FAMSUN

+86 514 85828888

www.famsungroup.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1034

FrigorTec GmbH

+49 7520 91482-0

www.frigortec.com

aqfeed.info/e/1652

IDAH

+866 39 902701

www.idah.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1615

Wenger Manufacturing

+1 785-284-2133

www.wenger.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1616

Yemmak

+90 266 733 83 63

www.yemmak.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1617

Drum filters

Faivre + 33 3 81 84 01 32

www.faivre.fr

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1603

Faivre is a French company, and one of the world leaders in the conception, manufacture and production of aquaculture machines. Since 1958, thanks to their knowledge of the market and strong experience in aquaculture, Faivre has developed high quality products to satisfy all of your needs, from one product to the full installation. Strength, effectiveness and simplicity are the qualities of their production. aqfeed.info/e/1603

Yemmak

+90 266 733 83 63

www.yemmak.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1617

Zheng Chang +86 2164184200 www.zhengchang.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1623

Feed and ingredients

Adisseo

+33 1 46 747104 www.adisseo.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1624

Aller Aqua

+45 70 22 19 10 www.aller-aqua.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/961

Alltech

+44 1780 764512 www.alltechcoppens.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1625

Anpario +44 1909 537 380 www.anpario.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1626

Elevator buckets

Tapco Inc +1 314 739 9191

www.tapcoinc.com

aqfeed.info/e/1654

Elevator & conveyor components

4B Braime +44 113 246 1800

www.go4b.com

aqfeed.info/e/1655

Enzymes

DSM

+43 2782 8030

www.dsm.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1605

Evonik

+49 618 1596785

www.evonik.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1606

Equipment for sale

ExtruTech Inc

+1 785 284 2153

www.extru-techinc.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1618

Extruders

Almex

+31 575 572666

www.almex.nl

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1279

Buhler AG

+41 71 955 11 11

www.buhlergroup.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1614

IDAH

+866 39 902701

www.idah.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1615

Ottevanger

+31 79 593 22 21

www.ottevanger.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1621

Wenger Manufacturing

+1 785-284-2133

www.wenger.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1616

Feed Mill

Biorigin

www.biorigin.net

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1627

GePro

+49 54415 925252 www.ge-pro.de aqfeed.info/e/1656

Grupo Dibaq +34 921 574 286

www.dibaqacuicultura.es

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1604

Grand Fish Feed +202 20 650018

www.grand-aqua.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1628

Jefo +1 450 799 2000 https://jefo.ca

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1607

Liptosa +34 902 15 77 11

www.liptoaqua.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1608

Phileo (Lesaffre animal care)

+33 3 20 81 61 00

www.lesaffre.fr

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1629

TekPro

+44 1692 403403

www.tekpro.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1631

Van Aarsen International +31 475 579 444 www.aarsen.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1632

Fish counters Faivre + 33 3 81 84 01 32 www.faivre.fr PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1603

Fish Graders

Fish pumps

aqfeed.info/e/1603

Faivre + 33 3 81 84 01 32 www.faivre.fr PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1603

Grinders

Grand Fish Feed +202 20 650018

www.grand-aqua.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1628

Hammermills

Dinnissen BV +31 77 467 3555

www.dinnissen.nl

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1633

Yemmak +90 266 733 83 63

www.yemmak.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1617

Yemtar +90 266 733 8550 www.yemtar.com aqfeed.info/e/1657

Moisture analysers

Hydronix +44 1483 468900 www.hydronix.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1634

Packaging

FAWEMA / The Packaging Group +49 22 63 716 0 www.fawema.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1635

Paddle Mixer Anderson www.andersonfeedtech.com aqfeed.info/e/1658

IDAH +866 39 902701 www.idah.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1615

Palatability enhancers

Symrise https://aquafeed.symrise.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1739

Pellet mill

IDAH +866 39 902701 www.idah.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1615

PTN +31 73 54 984 72 www.ptn.nl

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1636

Plants

Buhler AG +41 71 955 11 11 www.buhlergroup.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1614

•

•

•

•

•

Pulverisers

Dinnissen BV +31 77 467 3555

www.dinnissen.nl

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1633

FAMSUN

+86 514 87848880

www.muyang.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1034

Ottevanger +31 79 593 22 21

www.ottevanger.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1621

Yemmak

+90 266 733 83 63

www.yemmak.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1617

Yemtar +90 266 733 8550

www.yemtar.com

aqfeed.info/e/1657

Zheng Chang

+86 2164184200

www.zhengchang.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1623

IDAH +866 39 902701

www.idah.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1615

Probiotics

DSM

+43 2782 8030

www.dsm.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1605

Royal DSM is a global, purpose-led company in Health, Nutrition & Bioscience, applying science to improve the health of people, animals and the planet. DSM’s purpose is to create brighter lives for all. DSM’s products and solutions address some of the world’s biggest challenges while simultaneously creating economic, environmental and societal value for all its stakeholders - customers, employees, shareholders, and society at large. DSM and its associated companies employ approximately 23,000 people around the world and deliver annual net sales of about €10 billion.

DSM use their bright science to deliver positive transformations at scale for as many people as possible today and for generations to come, operating within the constraints of the world’s finite resources. DSM aim to redefine how they live and work in order to create a fairer, more prosperous and more sustainable society.

In Animal Nutrition and Health

The DSM Animal Nutrition and Health business group offers customers a true end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions and services for sustainable and profitable animal farming. The company’s three dedicated business lines cover Precision Services, Performance Solutions + Biomin® and Essential Products.

Precision Services

Greater precision in animal farming is key to a more sustainable and profitable future. Their Precision Services use the latest data analytics and diagnostics to improve animal health, lifetime performance, resource use and environmental footprint — while mitigating risks and unlocking more value. Improving the sustainability and profitability of animal farming is secured with

Performance Solutions + Biomin®

Their broad portfolio delivers the level of functional nutrition needed for the industry to meet the challenges of sustainability, animal welfare and feed quality.

aqfeed.info/e/1605

Phytogenics

Delacon

+43 732 640 531 414

www.delacon.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1637

RAS Equipment

Fish Farm Feeder

+34 886 317 600

www.fishfarmfeeder.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1638

FishFarmFeeder is a company founded in 2008 that manufactures feeding systems for aquaculture with a complete catalog of feeders that cover all stages of the fish's life: hatchery, pre-grower and grow-out, both on land and at sea.

FishFarmFeeder’s mission is to:

• Offer globally specialized solutions only in the field of feed automation for aquaculture.

• Contribute to a sustainable aquaculture helping to optimize production and improving fish welfare.

Respond to the needs of automation in the feeding of all stages of the fish's life.

• Develope a profitable, reliable, accurate and safe technology.

• Facilitate integration with other existing technologies in aquaculture such as sensors, software aqfeed.info/e/1603

RAS system

Aqua Ultraviolet

+1 952 296 3480

www.aquauv.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1639

Silos

FAMSUN

+86 514 85828888

www.famsungroup.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1034

TSC Silos

+31 543 473979

www.tsc-silos.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1612

Vacuum

Dinnissen BV

+31 77 467 3555

www.dinnissen.nl

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1633

Yemmak

+90 266 733 83 63

www.yemmak.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1617

Weighing equipment

Ottevanger

+31 79 593 22 21

www.ottevanger.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1621

Yemmak

+90 266 733 83 63

www.yemmak.com

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1617

Yeast products

Leiber GmbH

+49 5461 93030

www.leibergmbh.de

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1640

Phileo (Lesaffre animal care)

+33 3 20 81 61 00

www.lesaffre.fr

PROFILE: aqfeed.info/e/1629

For more information about our market place - please view or download our 2023 media kit

https://aqfeed.info/e/1529

Katherine Hawes, Principal Solicitor, Aquaculture Lawyers, Australia

Katherine Hawes, referred to as the fish lawyer, completed a Bachelor of Communications prior to reading law. Katherine developed her Commercial Law experience in a large Sydney Law firm and then at government funded legal aid. During this time, she studied and registered as a Barrister then continued studying to gain a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management, a Master of International Law, a Masters of Adult Education, and a Master of Marine Law.

Establishing Aquarius Lawyers in 2013 she had over 20 years business law experience. Her passions are the international ‘blue economy’ and digital technologies that enhance sustainable aquaculture production. She is an in-demand speaker and publisher around controlling and protecting your aquaculture business. Aquarius Lawyers courses cover topics for international clients, such as, smart contracts, licensing, regulatory protections and ensuring you protect your intellectual property.

As a practicing lawyer what made you aware of the aquaculture industry and the opportunity to work within this field?

I have always had a passion for the ‘blue space’, and I was looking for a niche area of law to practice. Add to that my love of seafood and belief that it can be a major source of food into the future, it became a marriage made in heaven. So I undertook a Masters of Maritime Law which was the closest thing to Aquaculture I could find at the time and that has proven to be an invaluable education alongside my other commercial qualifications.

I also like to practice where I can make a difference and that difference is educating our client’s upfront to prevent downstream problems.

What have been two key challenges you have faced in reaching the position you hold today?

As a global industry aquaculture has legal matters that span an international audience which has meant the firm had to rapidly develop bandwidth. Finding lawyers who were interested in this field 10 years ago was difficult but now with the interest in climate change we have some great lawyers on board. These lawyers in the main have approached us to work in our firm due to their interest in marine law.

However, reaching the smaller aquaculture farmers and their supply chain to educate them on the importance of being entrepreneurs and protecting their contracts and intellectual property has also been a significant challenge. We are now making progress with our courses we offer on the legal aspects of business entrepreneurship which can be found on our website.

More is expected of the global aquaculture industry to provide our population with nutritional food products. As a result, will there be a demand for specialist legal firms such as yours in the sector and why?

As aquaculture develops into a more sophisticated international industry and there is a reliance on farmed seafood to feed the world’s population, there will be increased competition amongst aquaculture farmers to get to market. Therefore, the farmers will need to ensure their business is not spending time and money on legal business disruptors, such as contract disputes, competitors using their research and development ideas, non-compliance with regulations and licensing and of course the increased focus on labelling and tracing using technologies such as blockchain and Artificial Intelligence.

I also predict there will be a need in the future to

demonstrate your data from hatchery stock to the time the product is packaged for market. Consumers will want this information so I imagine there will be a tightening of regulations and standards to ensure that the import and export of the product is well managed. As we state, prevention is better than cure! So yes accessible, understandable, and affordable legal advice will be sought out by farmers as well as those companies’ providing services and products to farmers.

Why should aquaculture companies, both suppliers and farmers, be concerned with legal matters?

It is a simple equation really. Legal disruption distracts you from your main business and costs considerable time and money to then protect yourself as well as put in place the remedy. Why wouldn’t you want to prevent this from happening in your business by getting the correct legal advice up front for a fraction of the cost.

Aren’t those in the aquaculture sector already well serviced by legal support within their own companies?

There are definitely companies with inhouse lawyers. However, our experience is that most in-house lawyers are kept busy working on issues such as contracts and patents and do not necessarily have an in-depth knowledge of aquaculture and its processes.

We have that in depth knowledge at an international level. Our firm is approached by inhouse lawyers to pick up issues with intellectual property disputes, licensing, regulations, and standards for their company as they concentrate on the bread and butter issues of their organisation.

What do you see as the key challenges facing a growing aquaculture sector in your view?

Internationally it is entrepreneurship! Aquaculture farmers have not recognised the need to manage their farms in a businesslike manner and concentrate on their return on investment. Often ideas are not protected, or they enter into research and development projects that ultimately benefits third party organisations and larger aquaculture farmers.

We are brought into legal matters where there are no upstream and downstream contracts in place for the purchase of fish products as well as the implementation of technologies. Grant projects often don’t spell out in their contracts who own’s what at the end of the project.

THE INDUSTRY FACES

New CEO for The Kingfish Company

The Kingfish Company, a pioneer in sustainable land-based aquaculture, has selected Vincent Erenst as Chief Executive Officer, effective February 6th, 2023. The Kingfish Company will recommend the appointment of Vincent Erenst as Chief Executive Officer at an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (EGM), to be held early 2023.

Mr Erenst brings a strong international, operational and transformational track record with more than 35 years of experience leading aquaculture companies. Most recently, he worked as Chief Operating Officer at Barramundi Group. Prior to this role, he worked as COO of Avramar and for more than 10 years he worked as Managing Director of Mowi Canada West.

"I am thrilled to take on this new challenge and responsibility. With a best-in-class product, cutting edge RAS technology and a strong and motivated team, The Kingfish Company is perfectly positioned to further implement its growth strategy. I am very proud to take the lead of a great team and will put all my efforts into getting The Kingfish Company to the next level in the coming years," says Mr Erenst.

Brian Kingzett appointed as new Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association

The BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) has announced the appointment of Brian Kingzett, as the new Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association.

Mr Kingzett has 35 years of experience in the environmental and aquaculture sectors where he has amassed a unique blend of professional expertise locally and abroad. Mr Kingzett received a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the University of Victoria and Master of Science from Simon Fraser University in Marine Biology.

Mr Kingzett joined the association in July 2021 as the Director of Science and Policy. In this role, Mr Kingzett navigated the sector through important new policy development areas, fostered new collaborative research initiatives, and enhanced the Association's science communications and public education efforts.

Mr Kingzett's appointment as Executive Director is effective immediately.

Major Scottish seafood producers join SAIC board

The Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) has bolstered its board with a trio of new appointments representing three of Scotland's major salmon producers. Joining the innovation centre's board are Anne Anderson, head of sustainability and development at Scottish Sea Farms; Su Cox, communications and business development director at Bakkafrost Scotland; and Hervé Migaud, director of health, welfare and biology at Mowi Scotland. Together they bring more than 30 years of aquaculture leadership experience, as well as academic and regulatory expertise.

Before joining Scottish Sea Farms in 2021, Ms Anderson spent 22 years with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), latterly as chief officer of compliance and beyond. She then left public sector for private to take up the role of sustainability director with Salmon Scotland (then Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation) where she led a range of strategic projects including the Scottish Salmon Sustainability Charter.

Ms Cox has more than 35 years of experience in the Scottish aquaculture sector, working for different salmon producers. She is currently responsible for public affairs and stakeholder engagement at Bakkafrost Scotland, formerly the Scottish Salmon Company, and is also chair of Scottish Quality Salmon.

Following more than two decades in academia, Mr Migaud joined Mowi's Scottish operations in April last year to oversee fish health and welfare. He remains an honorary professor at the University of Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture and was head of the production research group until 2022. Mr Migaud was also previously president of the European Aquaculture Society.

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FISH

PUMPS + GRADERS + COUNTERS

Fish farming equipment designer and manufacturer

More than 10 complete grading packs, nursery packs, grow out packs, harvesting packs.