TARS 2024 presents an exciting, immersive and focused program on the most relevant topics within Asia’s finfish aquaculture industry through:

TENTATIVE PROGRAM

Day 1 August 14, 2024 (0800-1800 hrs)

• State of the Industry and Challenges

We review industry’s progress since 2017. Asia is marked by intra-regional and in-country competition among suppliers with little cooperation between the various parties along the supply chain. Producers are threatened by high costs of production mainly from higher feed costs. We start with an overview of the current situation and a regional SWOT analysis, followed by species specific and country-level challenges.

• An Early Start with Genetics, Hatchery and Weaning

It starts with developing the right protocols and technology for larval and nursery rearing, High performance larval feeds, feed management and good hatchery practices are required to optimize growth and survival. Weaning remains a challenge for marine fish. What can we learn from hatchery systems and practices from producers in Japan, Taiwan, and the Mediterranean?

• Disease Mitigation: Management and Innovation

Industry’s growth and productivity are constrained by parasitic, bacterial and viral pathogens. Aside from ways to predict infections and innovations in disease mitigation, how can we boost immunity and adopt proper vaccination into the system?

• Back to Basics and Nutrient Focus Feeds

A general “one size fits all” feed for the various marine fish species persist in markets. How can we develop species specific feeds for improved efficiency? The way forward is precision nutrition, focusing on nutrients, matching processing technology, and assessing alternative ingredients, marine and plants meals for sustainable feeds, as well as feed modelling to help formulators.

• Feeds Fit for Environmental Security and Human Health

The focus is on reducing cost/kg fish produced. Enzymes and additives work for better feed efficiency and health to increase survival rates. Extrusion technology for digestible and efficient feeds can match production environments. The aim is to bring the fish feed industry in Asia to the same level as those in the Americas and Europe. Feeds are influential in meeting consumer demand for omega3 rich whitefish products.

Day 2 August 15, 2024 (0800-1800 hrs)

• Future Proofing Asia’s Finfish Aquaculture

Markets demand sustainable production models and moving forward with scalable and cost-efficient production of premium quality fish. The future is regulated and controlled production with automation and building up support industries for the long-term sustainability of the whole industry, following the salmon model. A business model is to build up a farmed fish complex i.e. utilising the whole fish and selling co-products. How can we bring more investments into the industry? Critical for the future expansion into markets is production with certification, traceability that meets food safety norms and a sustainable story.

Each participant can choose to join one of the three breakout groups:

GROUP 1: A Better Tilapia

GROUP 2: Pangasius: Traceable & Sustainable

GROUP 3: Mass Market Marine Fish

• Final Panel Discussion

The output from the roundtable breakout session will be combined and presented by three group leaders, followed by Q & A with participants.