USSEC recently conducted aquaculture feeding demonstrations in Costa Rica and Peru.  Consultant Jairo Amezquita travelled to those countries to supervise the aquaculture feeding demonstrations that are being carried out there.  The objective of the feeding demonstrations is to evaluate the high inclusion of soy protein concentrate (SPC) in aquafeeds for trout and red snapper species.  The feeds are manufactured by local aqua feed mills and two diets are being tested in each farm, one containing SPC and the other being the current feed used by the farm as a control.

In Costa Rica, USSEC is conducting feeding demonstrations with red snapper in two different farms using a diet that includes 27.7% of SPC with a protein/fat ratio of 50:13.  Mr. Amezquita visited these farms to discuss and analyze results from the feeding demonstrations.  In Peru, USSEC is conducting feeding demonstrations with trout, also in two different farms.  The farms are located at Lake Titicaca and Pucallpa.  Mr. Amezquita visited these farms to discuss and analyze results from the feeding demonstrations as well as to provide assistance on technical issues about the number of organisms stocked per experimental unit, the source of the organisms, and the variation in size for the fish stocked in each cage.
These feeding demonstrations will be completed in December 2013.  The red snapper and trout farms will together produce about 900 metric tons (MT) of fish in the next year.  The success of the feeding demonstrations will represent a potential consumption of approximately 500 MT of U.S. soybean meal.