Speaker Category: Speaker

Abstract:

Shrimp farming is a century old practice in Asia. However, the rapid increase in world population and food demand in the 20th century has driven the shrimp industry to be a billion-dollar industry. While this has given farmers economic benefits, at the same time, we need to be careful of its environmental impact as we need to produce more shrimp in the future.

The use of technology such as real time monitoring, farm automation and AI will be key to achieving higher farm productivity in a sustainable way. The implementation of this technology is not only limited to farms during the culture period but can also be implemented throughout the supply chain to improve efficiency and traceability.

Real time water quality monitoring can help farmers to increase stocking density while maintaining important parameters such as pH and dissolved oxygen. Auto feeders can help farmers to lower feed conversion ratios and customise feeding regime to suit farm conditions. AI can analyse all farm data and give farmers suggestions on how to manage their ponds and predict the harvest yield. Farmers can also view real time market prices to help them better decide on the best time to stock and harvest.

All this technology is still in the early stages of development but opens so many possibilities for the future. We can imagine fully autonomous high density RAS farms in the future that produce high quality shrimp with zero pollution. To reach that goal, we still need to continue to improve the technology and upscale implementation to drive down costs. JALA believes the implementation of technology will help farmers improve farm productivity as well as sustainability and traceability in Asia’s shrimp industry.

Abstract:

Shrimp aquaculture is among the world’s fastest-growing and the most valuable seafood commodity traded globally, accounting for 15% of the total value of the global internationally seafood trade. The majority of shrimp is farmed in developing countries and contributes significantly to their local economy.  Seafood consumption demand will continue to increase until 2030 and major producer countries like Indonesia have set up ambitious targets to increase export volumes up to 250% by 2024. The move could help local and national economies but without careful planning, it could also undermine global efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Many of the farms have been constructed within the mangrove ecosystem. This practice is a major contributor to the reduction of global mangrove ecosystems. Some research suggest that the production of 1 kg shrimp from mangrove-converted ponds could emit over 2,000kg CO₂-e. Fortunately, there are ways to together, improve the ecosystem as well as reduce GHG emissions while achieving the national shrimp production targets.

In Indonesia, for example, most of the 600,000 ha shrimp farms are extensive farms with low productivity converted from mangroves. A combination of natural mangrove restoration and improvement of aquaculture practices, will reverse the current status of the mangrove-converted pond as a net source to a net sink of GHG. This can be done by redesigning the existing extensive shrimp ponds layout to enable natural mangrove restoration in 50% – 80% of the ponds. The remaining areas can be allocated for aquaculture using intensive culture technology to increase production. This approach can potentially mitigate 1 billion tonnes CO₂-e within 10 years while helping the country reach its production targets.

Abstract:

Investors are increasingly recognizing the attractive returns that investing in shrimp farming can produce, yet most investment to date has been directed towards corporate-scale operations pre-integrated into the value chain. For the majority of shrimp farmers, accessing finance to grow or maintain their business remains challenging, with banks cautious to invest in infrastructure and many informal investment providers requiring high-profit shares or unattractive ownership positions.

This presentation explores what the real risks investors want to understand are, and how farmers, technology providers, feed companies, and processors can help investors understand and mitigate risks, to the benefit of the industry.

Investors are increasingly looking to invest responsibly and create social or environmental impact. This trend is an opportunity for farmers to access finance from new investors, but what does this really mean, how accessible is it and what can farmers do to prepare for this type of funding?

We explain the steps and process Alune uses to assess investment opportunities and the steps farms should take today, so they are ready for investment into their business tomorrow or years from now.

Abstract:

There are already a number of tools and apps to support farmers and the industry to improve productivity and even sustainability, and the number and variety of these will continue to increase in the coming years. What can farmers, the industry, governments and solution providers do to ensure they achieve the best results from these solutions? How can the sector capitalise on experience from other global supply chains, like poultry, and from shrimp industry pilot projects in Thailand and elsewhere?

Disease control in shrimp farming is complex. Today, there is no structured or digitalized data sharing on disease outbreaks. Tools available for data reporting in real time could help to control diseases as engaged in Thailand will be discussed. We believe that acting fast and sharing data can help prevent repeats of chronic economic impacts such as with AHPND, WSSV and EHP and ultimately lead to a more resilient and robust shrimp industry.

Abstract: 

The global trend towards environmentally sustainable and socially responsible food production has reached the shrimp industry. Consumers, distributors, journalists and legislators, among others, are looking into the social and environmental aspects of shrimp culture, in some cases presenting a negative picture that is not always a true reflection of the reality, and one that does not recognize the progress that has taken place to date.

In contrast with the salmon industry, comprised mainly of large companies, the shrimp world is widely diverse, ranging from big integrated companies exporting millions of dollars a year to small farmers that derive their income from one or two ponds and that do not even have a legal permit for their operations.  That diversity means that there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to sustainability challenges and solutions in shrimp production. This creates complexity which can slow down and be a barrier to reach sustainability.

According to the last FAIRR report sustainability issues in aquaculture comprise food safety (antibiotic use, disease, food fraud), environmental issues (biodiversity destruction, effluents and greenhouse emissions) and social aspects (community resistance and working conditions), issues that are aligned with the social developmental goals from the United Nations.

There has been a positive movement towards sustainable shrimp culture amongst the larger producers, with new use of genetically selected breeders, more sustainable feeds, intensive shrimp culture systems, the use of probiotics and traceability protocols among others. However, there is a need to include the small farmers with a tailored approach to be able to reach the sustainability goals for the industry as a whole.

This presentation will analyze the main sustainability issues, from the production hatcheries to the customer, focusing on the historical trends of the indicators and looking forward, on measures that all stakeholders can take to improve shrimp sustainability.  The industry has and is improving but with collective effort of all participants, we can do better.

Abstract:

The current linear economic model ‘take-make-waste’ is outdated, inefficient, wasteful, and does not fit the modern aquaculture industry. The farming sector of the aquaculture industry strongly focuses on increasing sustainability and reducing carbon footprint to stay productive and competitive in the long term. Hence, the feed and ingredients sectors also have to keep up with consumers and environmental demands, offering more sustainable and less environmentally impacting solutions.

The seafood industry produces a huge amount of side-stream products (SSP) (like fish frames and visceras) that are traditionally transformed in fish meal and fish oil, using different processing methods, leading to different end product qualities and performance. However, these SSP can be converted into functional, high quality and performing ingredients, like palatability enhancers and functional protein hydrolysates, among others.

The business model of Diana Aqua was developed with the circular economy and low carbon footprint in mind. Diana Aqua products help to not only reduce production costs, but mostly to have a positive impact on the environment. Our product manufacturing starts with SSP of seafood processing for human food sourced locally, canned tuna or shrimp, for instance. These SSP are then submitted to a mild enzymatic process, ensuring balanced and consistent amino acids and bioactive peptides profiles. Finished products are added into farmed shrimp and fish feeds to bring high palatability, high nutrition through a near perfect digestibility, and health benefits. Subsequently, these aqua SSP are further processed into new functional ingredients, which will go back into other aqua feed segments and keep the cycle going.

All these developments and knowledge have been made possible by a strong in-house R&D team and research centres in France, Ecuador and Thailand. In Thailand, the Aqualis research center, running palatability and nutritional trials in fish and in shrimp, provides great contributions to new product development and customer support, to supply the local aquaculture market with performing and proven functional solutions.

This presentation will describe how the utilization of palatability enhancers and functional protein hydrolysates by the feedmiller can bring benefits to all industry stakeholders. For seafood processors, a side-stream product management channel and valorization; for the feedmills, traceability, sustainability certification (Marine Trust, BAP, etc.), reduction of Fish In: Fish Out (FIFO) ratio, quality and nutritional profile consistency, simplification and reduction of marine ingredients in the feed formulation; for farmers, reduction of chemotherapeutics utilization, feed waste and nitrogen release in the environment, animal performance consistency, traceability, support for certifications. Such a valorization model developed on SSP can also be applied to other SSP or downgraded raw materials coming from other food industries.

Abstract:

Aquaculture, which is an ancestral activity in some countries, has been modernizing and upgrading very rapidly for the last fifty years. After a first period which allowed farmers to ensure “very comfortable” margins, the global production increasing, market prices fell. Today, it is essential to optimise production costs to maintain an acceptable margin for producers.

The recent dramatic situation induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the fall of the market and the increase of production costs, has highlighted several factors that further weaken the situation of aquaculture producers, with dependence on only a few international markets, and dependence on only few raw materials for the formulation of aquaculture feeds such as soybean meal and fish meal.

Therefore, it has become essential to optimise the farming methods, for that purpose, several tracks are possible.  Feed is the one of the most important factors because it is the main production cost for the fish farmer, especially because of the high price of the proteins.

The incorporation of a protease in the formulation of a feed allows to seriously improve the digestibility of the long chain protein.  Thus, it allows the increase in the proportion of new vegetable proteins, while maintaining a good digestibility and a correct amino acid profile. Moreover, the incorporation of an efficient protease in the formulation of the aquafeed would allow for the significant increase in the percentage of digestible proteins, making it possible to lower the gross protein content without affecting the zootechnical results.

Finally, when making purchases, consumers are increasingly sensitive to the environmental impact of aquaculture operations when making their purchases, especially since they are often located in fragile areas such as mangroves. Therefore, I will also discuss how the use of protease in the feed reduces the impact on the environment in three ways:

• By reducing the total protein concentration, which results in a better Protein Retention Efficiency and/or Protein Efficiency Ratio.
• By reducing the amount of marine meal and therefore reducing the need for industrial fish products.
• Minimising the percentage of non-digestible proteins that are dispersed in the environment.

Reducing the impact on the environment is important first and foremost from an ecological point of view to preserve the planet. But it is also important to ensure the sustainability of the farms and for the sake of image and sustainability of shrimp farming.

Abstract:

In 2019, China was the global leader, importing almost 718,000 tonnes of marine shrimp to match the increasing demand of its consumers. However, the import market became erratic in 2020, with lower demand from the closure of restaurants amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The e-commerce market picked up substantially but could not offset the loss in overall demand. The competitive market with low prices benefited local consumers. At the same time, post-pandemic concerns such as DNA testing for the virus in packaging affected both importers and exporters and shrimp supply into the country.

Based on our knowledge and experience, we present some perspectives on the changes with the Chinese shrimp market which we estimate will continue to have a significant influence on the global farmed shrimp trade. Demand is changing in China.  What are Chinese consumers looking for in terms of product forms, food safety and sustainability and how can Asian shrimp better position itself in the Chinese market? Prior to the pandemic, South China was a preferred market for live black tiger but this has also changed. There is also an increasing supply of locally farmed shrimp. What are the outlook and trends for its shrimp market in 2021-2022?