The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, through the Directorate General of Aquaculture of Indonesia, signed an agreement last month with the Norwegian government and a private Norwegian mariculture enterprise to develop a mariculture industry of Asian sea bass or barramundi (Lates calcarifer) in offshore floating cages in Aceh (Sumatra), West Java, Sulawesi, and Papua provinces in Indonesia.

The mariculture scenario will be based on Norway’s successful salmon industry. The offshore cage culture areas, however, will be only about 1 to 3 kilometers from the beach line using round cages with a diameter of 10 to 30 meters and a depth of 4 to 6 meters with full extruded slow-sinking (slinking) pellet feeds with initial production target of around 15,000 tons per year.

There are currently only four big barramundi aquaculture companies in Indonesia: PT. Indomarind (Batam, near Singapore); PT. Lucky Samudra (Seribu Islands, Jakarta Bay); PT. Phillips Seafoods Indonesia; and PT. Bali Barramundi (both are in North Bali) with an estimated production of less than 1,500 tons per year. A long-established barramundi aquaculture company of PT. Fega Mariculture (Seribu Islands, Jakarta Bay) recently collapsed in early 2016 and another newly-built large barramundi aquaculture company PT. Paramount Barramundi (North Bali) was terminated before it started last year due to insufficient cash flow.

A sample of Asian sea bass or barramundi (Picture taken during USSEC’s feed trial with PT. Phillips Seafoods Indonesia in FY 2011)

While the market for filleted barramundi has been confirmed, more technical considerations have been raised to strengthen the industry, as Indonesia’s aquaculture industry is weak in the following areas. First, the genetics and selective breeding of the brooders in hatcheries need to supply premium seeds. Second, fish health (vaccination) is a must during the culture period (16 to 24 months to reach 1.8 to 2.2 kg fillet size) (currently vaccination is a “luxury” procedure in Indonesia’s aquaculture industry) and the last is to provide the industry with premium feeds (with premium ingredients) with the correct feeding method.

(L to R) Group photo of USSEC SEA Aquaculture Team at an aquaculture farm in Cambodia: Dr. Gede S.Sumiarsa (ID LTS), Mr. Vo Hoang Nguyen (VM TM), Mr. Levy L. Manalac (RP TM), Mr. Lukas Manomaitis (APTC), Mr.Pamudi (ID TM), Ms. May Myat Noe Lwin (MM TM), Mr. Hsiang Pin Lan (Asia Marine Specialist)

The USSEC Southeast Asian Aquaculture Team met in mid-November to summarize the FY16 project year and plan the FY17 and FY18 project approaches.

“We have a strong and long-term team that has been working on behalf of U.S. soybean farmers and the U.S. Soy industry in general to promote the use of U.S. Soy products in the Southeast Asian region,” states Lukas Manomaitis, USSEC Aquaculture Program Lead Technical Consultant – SEA.

The focus for FY17 in particular is to move several initiatives to more advanced stages with continued work on the International Aquaculture Feed Formulation Database (IAFFD) and the marine fish program. Both of these initiatives are supported strongly by qualified state soybean boards (QSSB) with Nebraska, South Dakota, Michigan, and other QSSBs providing support to supplement United Soybean Board (USB), Market Access Program (MAP), and Foreign Market Development (FMD) funds.

“We are very thankful for the trust and support by the QSSBs particularly, as we meet with farmers from these areas on a regular basis,” says Mr. Manomaitis.

The USSEC SEA Aquaculture Program project year runs from November 1, 2016 to October 31, 2017 with four primary target nations and several secondary target nations. There are three main SEA projects (with several activities in each) and there is also overlap with at least three other worldwide projects/activities. The SEA aquaculture team expects to continue to drive the message of the value, utility and quality of U.S. Soy to SEA’s aquaculture industry.

USSEC – Philippines hosted the Myanmar aquaculture team led by USSEC Myanmar Technical Manager-Aquaculture May Myat Noe Lwin to observe and learn the Philippines’ aquaculture industry July 3-9.

Myanmar’s aquaculture team was able to learn and increase its knowledge on a feed-based culture system in tilapia culture and milkfish and pompano culture by visiting tilapia ponds and cage farms, milkfish cage farms, and a pompano cage farm.

The members of the Myanmar aquaculture team, together with the staff of Santeh Feeds Corp., during the visit to a feedmill plant on July 4

The team also visited tilapia breeding stations and research facilities to learn about tilapia breeding practices and techniques. They visited the Freshwater Aquaculture Center – Central Luzon State University (FAC-CLSU), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources – National Freshwater Fisheries Technology Center (BFAR-NFFTC), and GenoMar Supreme Philippines, Inc., all located in Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija, Philippines.

The Myanmar aquaculture team visited the USSEC Tilapia LVHD Cage demonstration project at Southeast Feeds Corp., Taal Lake, Talisay, Batangas, Philippines on July 8

The Myanmar aquaculture team was better able to understand the aquafeed industry through its visit to Santeh Feeds Corp. and other aquafeed distributors and aqua stores.

The Myanmar aquaculture team visited the USSEC Tilapia LVHD Cage demonstration project at Southeast Feeds Corp., Taal Lake, Talisay, Batangas, Philippines on July 8

This learning will help Myanmar’s aquaculture industry to improve its aquaculture production, in particular, tilapia production. These increased productions will translate to an increase in demand for formulated feeds, which will in turn increase demand for U.S. Soy products.

Myanmar’s aquaculture team visited the Santeh Pompano Cage Farm in Bataan, Philippines on July 7

USSEC hosted Filipino companies Finfish Hatcheries Inc. and Alsons Aquaculture Corp. on the Milkfish Hatcheries and High Value Marine Fish Hatcheries Study Tour in Gondol, Bali, Indonesia October 23 – 27.

The USSEC Milkfish Hatcheries and High Value Marine Fish Hatcheries Study Tour featured a presentation of Indonesia’s milkfish and high value marine fish industry and hatchery updates by the Institute for Mariculture Research and Development (IMRAD), and visits to different milkfish hatcheries and high value marine fish hatcheries in Indonesia.

The two companies from the Philippines were able to increase their knowledge and understanding of the Indonesian milkfish and high value marine fish hatcheries, including broodstock management; breeding techniques; larval rearing and production; natural food production, usage and application; and fry/fingerling production and management. They were also able to increase knowledge on the proper construction of hatchery structures.

The Philippines produced 384,425 metric tons (MT) of milkfish in 2015, with an estimated 900 million milkfish fry used. Finfish Hatcheries Inc. is hoping to increase its milkfish fry production after this trip. The estimated milkfish feed requirement is about 840,000 to 920,000 MT.

USSEC Technical Consultants – Aquaculture Levy Manalac and Pamudi, together with the staff of Finfish Hatcheries Inc., and Alsons Aquaculture Corp. from the Philippines pose with officers of Institute for Mariculture Research and Development (IMRAD) during a visit on October 24 to Gondol, Bali, Indonesia

Mr. Manalac and Mr. Pamudi, with the staff of Finfish Hatcheries Inc., and Alsons Aquaculture Corp. and with a technician of C.V. Dewata Laut hatchery on October 26

In Vietnam, there are large amount of renewable energy (RE) resources, which are distributed throughout the country. Energy from biogas is estimated of about 10 billion cubic meters (m³), with resources that can be collected from landfills, animal excrement, and agricultural residue. The ten largest Vietnamese pig producers, in 2015, can produce 308.789.465 kilowatts of electricity per day from 158,904 m³ of animal waste.

Biogas from fish farming is not yet technically feasible, because fishpond sludge can only be collected after harvest. With an Intensive Pond Aquaculture (IPA) system with a sludge collector set up at the quiescent zone, however, fish waste can be easily collected daily, even hourly, when the biomass became large in the raceway. These technical properties of IPA allow the consideration of producing biogas from fishpond culture.

Benefits from fish waste biogas include:

• Methane from fish waste biogas can be used to run the air blower in the IPA system, saving electricity cost
• Methane from fish waste biogas can be used to warm up water at the inlet of the raceway. This would greatly help farmers in Northern Vietnam, where there was six months of winter season of no culture due to low water temperature.

Today, Vietnam faces several natural resource issues (water, energy) as well as environmental issues in aquaculture (fish pond effluent treatment), which hold up development in the aquaculture industry. USSEC Vietnam is focusing on IPA with biogas technology to promote profitable and sustainable pond aquaculture production. The objectives are to push the use of commercial feed in high tech culture, which consequently increase the demand of soy in aquafeed, especially U.S. Soy products, to create an entire green value chain.

At the biogas in IPA seminar with Cargill farmers in Hung Yen province – Vietnam,
USSEC Vietnam Technical Manager – Aquaculture, Vo Hoang Nguyen, introduces USSEC’s activities to the audience

USSEC held the U.S. Soy in International Aquaculture Marketing Mission in Guayaquil, Ecuador from October 19-26.

14 participants, including U.S. grower leaders and USSEC aquaculture staff, took part in this mission in order to better understand the Ecuadorian aquaculture industry, particularly the shrimp industry, and the importance of this market for U.S. Soy. This trip took the team to much of the shrimp aquaculture production chain, including hatchery-growout-processing operations and feedmill operations, along with providing a chance to take part in the annual AquaExpo that brings the commercial industry together for discussions and a trade show.

Participants included Belinda Burrier, United Soybean Board (USB) director; Jerry Bambauer, American Soybean Association (ASA) director; RJ Campbell, Nebraska Soybean Board; Tony Johanson, Nebraska Soybean Board; Diana Beitelspacher, North Dakota Soybean Council; Andy Tauer, Indiana Soybean Alliance; Tom Griffith, Indiana Soybean Alliance; Kary Claghorn, Iowa Soybean Association; Rolland Schnell, Iowa Soybean Association; USSEC Marketing Director – International Aquaculture and Customer Focus Colby Sutter; and USSEC Project Manager Aquaculture/ Customer Focus Dena Hensel.

During this trip, there was also an opportunity for Aquaculture Program Lead Technical Consultant – SEA Lukas Manomaitis to discuss the updated International Aquaculture Feed Formulation Database (IAFFD) with the grower leaders to show them how USSEC is trying to directly influence the industry to use U.S. Soy.

Group photo of grower leader team and local industry cooperators

Inspecting soy quality at Skretting Feedmill with U.S. Soy farmers

In October, USSEC supported the implementation of an offshore mariculture industrial tour to Malta and Italy. The program is expected to allow participants from both government and industry to be exposed to the current status of mariculture in the Mediterranean.

Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Turkey, Italy and Malta are key producers of sea bream and sea bass for the EU market. Those producing countries have established offshore mariculture development for the last decade to improve sustainability.

The tour is expected to improve the policies and practices to support offshore mariculture development in Indonesia. Offshore mariculture would allow the establishment of industrial scale, consistent volume, and quality to meet global seafood market demand. More farmed seafoods would mean more quality aquafeed to produce.

In September, USSEC supported two national level seminars in Surabaya and Jakarta, Indonesia, which were aimed to support the development of a sustainable mariculture development roadmap and shrimp certification policies. The support is expected to guide Indonesian aquaculture industry development to be more competitive, productive, efficient, and sustainable.

The seminars involved the active participation of key stakeholder elements, including government senior officials, the Shrimp Club and shrimp producers, feed mills, and processors/packers, as well as relevant industry stakeholders. A task force will be established to work on improving Indonesia’s shrimp aquaculture industry.

Recent developments have shown that customers and buyers are becoming more aware of the importance of sustainability. Shrimp certification will lead to the use of certified feed and ingredients, which will be highly beneficial to USSEC’s commitment to the U.S. Soy Sustainability Assurance Protocol (SSAP).

USSEC’s aquaculture program sponsored 17 participants to attend the Progressus Aquaculture Nutrition AgriSchool, a five-day intensive short course on aquaculture nutrition. Readers may recall that USSEC “declared victory” on the topic of basic training in aquaculture nutrition with Progressus’ decision to create a commercial training program on this topic.

USSEC sponsored 17 of the 55 course participants

This program allows USSEC to focus the limited time of its feed nutritionists on more intensive training of key U.S. Soy-using stakeholders. Additionally this event allowed Aquaculture Program Lead Technical Consultant – SEA Lukas Manomaitis to introduce the USSEC-supported International Aquaculture Feed Formulation Database (IAFFD) to the participants, as well as allow them to use the database in a commercial feed formulation program (Bestmix).

It is hoped that a similar course to this, the Aquaculture Feedmilling AgriSchool, may further help USSEC to better use its time for focused events rather than general training of industry. The Aquaculture Feedmilling AgriSchool will be vetted in November of this year.

In support of the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program, USSEC Aquaculture Consultant – Americas Jairo Amezquita recently presented BAP certificates to Colombian small farmers selected to receive training and financial support.

Mr. Amezquita has been a key player in ensuring that Colombia’s farmers receive the training and financial support necessary to apply for the BAP certification to comply with local and international market requirements since USSEC and the Federación Colombiana De Acuicultores (FEDEACUA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) early this year.

The USSEC consultant presented a number of tilapia and trout producers with BAP certificates for attaining BAP certification at a celebration of responsible aquaculture organized by FEDEACUA in Bogota, Colombia, on October 11.

“The MoU signed by USSEC, FEDEACUA and GAA to train Colombia’s small farmers to achieve BAP certification represents an effective demonstration of responsible aquaculture in Latin America,” said Marcos Moya, manager of BAP supply development for GAA.

USSEC participated in the 7th Aquatech Philippines:  Aquaculture Expo & Convention in Tagaytay City on July 21. This year’s theme was “Exploring the Latest Innovations for Higher Production, Best Alternatives and Strategies for Global Marketability.”

Aquatech Philippines, for the past six years, has been gathering experts and stakeholders from the aquaculture sector. This sole technical event in the Philippines focusing in aquaculture recognizes the importance of the collection and sharing of knowledge in aquaculture activities by facilitating a comprehensive trade exhibition, technical conference, free livelihood seminars, and fellowship activities. The event aims to develop sustainable aquaculture in the country and contribute to the alleviation of poverty and was attended by nearly 150 participants from different aquaculture stakeholders in the Philippines.

USSEC Technical Manager – Philippines and Southeast Asia Demonstration Coordinator Levy Loreto Manalac presented and discussed “The USSEC Soy In Aquaculture Program’s Work on Improvement of the Philippines Milkfish Chanos chanos Industry Through Better Feed and Feeding Approaches.” USSEC Marine Fish Aquaculture Specialist Hsiang Pin Lan presented and discussed “Milkfish Disease and Health Management: Observations and Findings in Philippines.”

Hsiang Pin Lan, USSEC Marine Fish Aquaculture Specialist, discusses “Milkfish Disease & Health Management: Observations & Findings in Philippines” in Tagaytay City, Philippines on July 21

Levy Loreto L. Manalac, USSEC Philippines Technical Manager and Southeast Asia Demonstration Coordinator, presents “The USSEC Soy In Aquaculture Program’s Work on Improvement of the Philippines Milkfish Chanos chanos Industry Through Better Feed and Feeding Approaches” at the 7th Aquatech: Aquaculture Expo & Convention Philippines 2016

USSEC’s aquaculture program recently welcomed an experienced marine fish broodstock expert, Dr. Robert Vassallo Agius, to Thailand to speak primarily to the Asian sea bass hatchery industry. The target of the presentation was to highlight the importance of formulated broodstock feeds as both a biosecurity measure and for better production. Originally intended for an audience of about 40 participants, the final number swelled to over 60 as industry learned of the seminar’s content, with both commercial and government interest as well as commercial feed firms.

This topic, and another on larval nutrition and rearing, benefited from the fact that Dr. Agius is one of the leading individuals working on broodstock nutrition in Japan and Europe. It is also an important one as Thailand is a major producer of large numbers of Asian sea bass fingerlings for domestic and regional use, but not particularly high quality ones.

High quantities of high quality marine fish fingerlings are an important step to moving to industrial-scale production of marine fish in Southeast Asia and will lead to a requirement for high quality and consistent feeds for growout operations. It is in that area that USSEC expects expanded promotion of U.S. Soy products in the marine fish aquaculture industry.

Dr. Robert Vassallo Agius, broodstock nutrition expert from Malta

Photo from rear of meeting room shows a packed hall with over 60 participants, not including USSEC staff or contractors

USSEC held its second regional aquaculture investment conference in Dead Sea, Jordan from September 23 – 26. More than 70 aquaculture professionals attended the conference from 7 different countries, including Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Participants represented major aquaculture producers and aquaculture feed millers.

American Soybean Association (ASA) director Mark Jackson and United Soybean Board (USB) director Bob Metz represented U.S. soybean farmers at the event.

Several speakers from different parts of the world gave talks on processing quality aquafeed, least cost formulation, small scale aqua operation, soy global supply and demand, aquafeed safety and extrusion, advancement in preconditioning and drying of aqua feed, aquaculture systems innovation, and the aqua industry from the Middle East and other regions.

Speakers included: Jesse Chappell, Associate Professor, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture & Sciences, Auburn University; Ramesh G, Technical Sales Advisor, Aqua Feed Division –Worldwide, Wenger Manufacturing Inc.; Michael Martin, Regional Sales Director, Africa, Europe, Middle East, Insta-Pro International; Colby Sutter, USSEC Marketing Director – International Aquaculture / Customer Focus; Suleiman Al Qura’an, Senior Communication Officer, Jordan Investment Commission; Mian Riaz, Director, Food Protein R&D Center, Texas A&M University; John C. Baize, President, John C. Baize and Associates; Tony Freiji, Group President and CEO, Wadi Group; and Sirri Kayhan, USSEC Consultant.

The high level of audience participation and networking was a measure of the success of the event, which comes at a time when countries throughout the region are expanding their seafood production in response to consumer demand and food security concerns.

USSEC has developed long-term relationships with Texas A&M University, Auburn University, Insta-Pro International, and Wenger Manufacturing Inc., where they cooperate to develop international soybean and soybean product markets.

Dr. Riaz gave two talks titled, “How to Make Quality Feed Using Extrusion Technology” and “Aquafeed Safety and Extrusion Processing.” In the past, Dr. Riaz has spoken on soybean processing and aquafeed extrusion at other USSEC conferences in the MENA region. USSEC has sent participants from all over the world to attend aquafeed extrusion short courses offered by the Food Protein Research and Development Center at Texas A&M.

Mr. Martin commented, “As an industry member of USSEC, Insta-Pro appreciates USSEC’s continuing commitment to grow the aquaculture market in the MENA region and is grateful for the opportunity to participate in this highly effective event. Soybeans are critical to the success of aquafeed production [here] and this is clearly understood by the conference participants.”

After the conference, the USSEC delegation visited two fish farms in the Jordan Valley.

USSEC provided technical support to commercial shrimp growers in Peru by holding multiple discussions with a feedmill representative and fish and shrimp producers about modifying diet formulations for fish and shrimp by incorporating more soybean meal derived from U.S.-grown soybeans.

Visits to fish and shrimp farms and facilities by USSEC consultants Dr. John Hargreaves and Jairo Amezquita consisted of six one-on-one or small-group direct technical consultations and presentations to farm groups about pond preparation and water management of shrimp ponds to improve productivity and technical capacity. The presentation consisted of sections on sediment removal, pond drying, soil liming, fertilization, managing water transparency through water exchange, and the use of probiotics in fish and shrimp farming. Six large and prominent fish and shrimp farms in Huacho, Piura and Tumbes were visited. The presentations were made to personnel at two of the six farms visited. Mr. Amezquita also talked about USSEC’s role in the development of global aquaculture, emphasizing the advantages of using U.S. Soy in shrimp diets.

Dr. Hargreaves´s presentation focused on pond preparation and water management of fish and shrimp ponds to improve productivity. The lecture consisted of sections on sediment removal, pond drying, soil liming, fertilization, managing water transparency through water exchange, and the use of probiotics in shrimp farming. A few points were emphasized to shrimp farmers as recommendations:

1) The importance of pond drying was emphasized to oxidize accumulated organic matter. It was recommended that farmers have a production cycle with a 15-day interval between harvesting one crop and stocking juveniles for the next crop. Within this 15-day interval, there should be 7 days of bright sunshine with the pond completely exposed.

2) Ponds should be routinely tested to evaluate soil pH. This is especially true for ponds located in former mangrove wetlands, which are known to have soils with low pH and a very high lime requirement. The point was emphasized that ponds will not respond well to fertilization unless soil pH is greater than 7.

3) Perhaps the most important point emphasized was that the best way to manage dissolved oxygen in ponds without aeration is to manage water transparency. By maintaining a water transparency (as indicated by Secchi disk visibility) of 30-50 cm, there should be no problems with dissolved oxygen concentration. This can be problematic in shrimp farming areas where source water is already highly eutrophic, as indicated in at least one farm visited.

Representatives from the Global Soy in Aquaculture Program attended Global Aquaculture Alliance’s GOAL 2016 conference in Guangzhou, China, September 20 – 22.

USSEC Marketing Director – Aquaculture Colby Sutter and USSEC China Aquaculture Program Manager Jim Zhang and USSEC China Freshwater Aquaculture Technical Manager Zhou Enhua were joined by United Soybean Board (USB) director Dan Farney and American Soybean Association (ASA) director Dan Roe to participate in the program focused on “Healthy Fish, Healthy People and Healthy Planet.”

Mr. Zhang’s presentation on “Trends in Intensive Pond Aquaculture,” detailing the many benefits of the Intensive Pond Aquaculture (IPA) technology introduced to China by USSEC’s aquaculture program, received immediate interest in the technology from Chinese producers as well as the many other international representatives attending the conference.

USSEC is participating in the 2016 Global Outlook on Aquaculture Leadership (GOAL) conference in Guangzhou, China September 19-22.

GOAL is a unique, once-a-year opportunity to learn, network and connect producers and suppliers to the marketplace and is widely viewed as a must-attend conference for global aquaculture thought leaders. This year’s conference theme is “Healthy Fish, Healthy People, Healthy Planet.”

United Soybean Board (USB) director Dan Farney and American Soybean Association (ASA) director Dan Roe will represent U.S. Soy growers at the event.

USSEC Aquaculture Program Manager Jim Zhang will present the Global Aquaculture Innovation & Leadership Award, and USSEC is sponsoring a breakfast during the event.

As a result of producing aquafeed with less fishmeal, taurine has risen in importance as an important ingredient that supplies protein.   Taurine allows animals, especially marine fish that require high amounts of protein, to achieve a balanced diet.

Vietnamese feed mills in Vietnam have been specializing in pangasius feed, and feed formulators have not yet turned their focus to taurine.

Recently, another freshwater species, snakehead, became a motivation to use taurine and lecithin in the diet. Snakehead requires high levels of protein and fat in feed (45 percent crude protein, 10 percent crude fat). The role of corn gluten meal (CGM) is also important to steady the unbalanced amino acid profile when using soy products as a main source to replace protein demand in marine fish.

The above-mentioned ingredients need to be recommended to feed formulators in order to get a suitable formulation with the lowest cost. USSEC Vietnam focuses on those specific ingredients, and taurine and lecithin will be a subject in the upcoming Asian Aquaculture Feed Formulation Database (AAFFD) workshop.

USSEC’s goal is to give aquaculture feed formulators more confidence in using a soy-optimized diet. The U.S. Soybean Sustainability Assurance Protocol (SSAP) will be a key method to promote U.S. Soy products during seminars and workshops.

Working with a feed mill to promote U.S. Soy products at a feeding demonstration site in Sadec, Vietnam. (L to R): USSEC Technical Consultant Aquaculture – Philippines Levy Manalac; farm staff Kim Chung; USSEC Technical Consultant, Aquaculture – Vietnam Nguyen Vo Hoang; Viet Thang Feed R&D staff, Tuan Anh

As part of its commitment to promote sustainable marine aquaculture development, Indonesian marine aquaculture stakeholders have established a group to regularly discuss issues and challenges, along with ways to promote sustainable marine aquaculture production and marketing. The discussions are mainly held via online chats, but are sometimes live through presentations and lunch together.

USSEC Indonesia has been working with the group to encourage the development of a roadmap to allow better planning and management of Indonesian marine aquaculture development. The development of marine aquaculture will boost quality feed production in Indonesia, eventually leading to soy use in aquafeed. Marine fish feed production requires high quality ingredients (primarily soy), thus ensuring the potential absorption of U.S. Soy in aquaculture feed production.

Participants in the “USSEC Risk Management in Milkfish Cage Culture and Health & Disease Management Workshop” in Alaminos, Pangasinan, Philippines on July 20

USSEC conducted the “USSEC Risk Management in Milkfish Cage Culture and Health & Disease Management Workshop” in Bolinao and Alaminos in Pangasinan, Philippines on July 19 and 20. The workshop aimed to inform milkfish cage farmers on how to manage risk in milkfish cage culture and teach health management and disease prevention to maximize profit.

Levy Loreto Manalac, USSEC Philippines Technical Manager and Southeast Asia Demonstration Coordinator, presented and discussed risk management in milkfish cage aquaculture to maximize profit including the use of quality feeds, good feeding management, and best culture management.

Hsiang Pin Lan, USSEC Marine Fish Aquaculture Specialist, presented and discussed milkfish health management and disease prevention in milkfish marine cage culture emphasizing USSEC’s low volume high density (LVHD) cage culture technologies, with proper feeding management and understanding the fish growth rate in relation to feeding levels and feed conversion ratio to minimize pollution to the environment and optimizing economic return.

Hsiang Pin Lan, USSEC Marine Fish Aquaculture Specialist, does a milkfish disease dissection and checks for microscope parasite infection and possible bacterial infection on milkfish internal organs. Milkfish growers brought diseased milkfish to the workshop for disease identification and to learn possible causes of mortalities

The participants understood and realized the value of using high quality feeds and the importance of best management practices in a risk-free and disease-free milkfish cage culture.

The two workshops were attended by 97 participants including milkfish cage operators, technicians, feed managers, staff from local government units, aqua feed miller’s staff and a cage manufacturer from Bolinao, Anda, Alaminos and Sual, all in Pangasinan and Rabon, La Union.

Hsiang Pin Lan, USSEC Marine Fish Aquaculture Specialist, discusses “USSEC Milkfish Health Management and Disease Prevention in Milkfish Marine Cage Culture” in Bolinao, Pangasinan on July 19

Participants in the “USSEC Risk Management in Milkfish Cage Culture and Health & Disease Management Workshop” in Bolinao, Pangasinan, Philippines

USSEC Vietnam Aquaculture Technical Manager Võ Hoàng Nguyên visits the INVE booth at the Vietshrimp International Fair

USSEC attended the first international fair organized specifically for Vietnam’s shrimp industry from June 24 to 26. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) of Vietnam and the People Committee of Bạc Liêu province co-organized the event. About 100 booths from multinational producers, chemical and equipment manufacturers, and shrimp feed companies exhibited at the event.

Shrimp extensive culture systems occupy about 70 percent of the shrimp farming area in Vietnam. Stocking density for tiger shrimp (P. monodon) is 20-30 post larvae (PL) /square meter (sqm) and for white leg shrimp (P. vannamei), 100-150 PL/sqm. In 2014, white leg shrimp represented 60.6 percent of Vietnam’s total production at 660,000 metric tons (MT) /year.

As a carnivorous animal, tiger shrimp requires a higher protein level in feed, 42 to 36 percent, while white leg shrimp are more omnivorous with protein levels at 26 to 32 percent. According to a 2012 survey, 30 to 40 percent of Vietnamese farmers still used unsuitable tiger shrimp feed for white shrimp because they believed that using higher protein feed would speed up the growth rate in white shrimp.

Vietnam has 20 shrimp feed mills that produced 500,000 to 600,000 MT of shrimp feed in 2015. The top five feed mills represent 67.6 percent of the total production. Shrimp feed are commonly viewed as pellet feed, but some companies offer extruded sinking shrimp feed, claiming better digestion. Shrimp larva pellet feed is mainly imported from two key players, INVE and Bernaqua.

Every year, Vietnam produced about 143 billion of shrimp PL. Viet Uc Company is the leader with a 28 percent market share. Stocking size is PL14, but some companies offered a PL15 for the PL14 price to gain a competitive advantage.

Thus far, USSEC Vietnam has not been active in the country’s shrimp industry. There are many issues where the industry needs technical support, including better feed and health management. The outlook of Vietnam’s shrimp industry is positive in the near future. The fact that an international fair was organized in Vietnam for specifically for the shrimp industry implies a bright future for Vietnam’s export market.