USSEC recently provided technical service and held a seminar for Colombian fish producers.
Consultants Dr. Greg Lutz and Jairo Amezquita, together with staff from a local aqua feed mill, visited fish producers in the cities of Pereira, La Union, Ginebra and Palmira to provide technical service. They also held a seminar for nearly 60 people about the genetic aspects to improve the Colombia’s existing tilapia strains, which will help increase fish production and the consumption of U.S. Soy products. Dr. Lutz gave a presentation, “Improving Tilapia Genetics,” which received much attention from the aqua producers in attendance. He emphasized the current necessity for improving the strains of tilapia available in the region and the importance of local aqua production. After the conference, Dr. Lutz answered many questions and was also contacted by many participants who requested more information about fair practices management. Mr. Amezquita gave a presentation called “USSEC’s Role in the Development of Aquaculture in Latin American,” where he emphasized the current situation of the industry in the world, Latin America, and Colombia, and their opportunities to diversify with new species. Additionally, he talked about statistics and trial results with U.S. soybean meal, soy protein concentrate, and isolate protein in the diets of some aqua species.
The team visited six tilapia farms to determine the quality of the tilapia strains and give them the best recommendations about genetics improvement to increase production and help resistant strains that cause challenges to production. The consultants also met with the Colombian Federation of Fish Farmers (FEDEACUA) and with the government agencies in charge of aquaculture in Colombia to talk about sanitary issues at fish farms.