USSEC continues its efforts to promote the effectiveness of U.S. soy products in Southeast Asia (SEA) in aquaculture, as it provides ongoing technical support to Marcela Farms, Inc.  This longtime USSEC cooperator is one of the largest integrated aquaculture companies in the Philippines and operates its own hatchery, feed mill, grow-out operations (shrimp and fish), processing plant and marketing (wholesale and retail).  USSEC has been working with Marcela to develop a least cost soy optimized diet for tiger shrimp (P.monodon) and white shrimp (L.vannamei) in accordance with their needs.

USSEC, in 2009, formulated a least cost soy optimized diet for tiger shrimp and recommended the use of other ingredients in order for Marcela to reduce the usage of imported fishmeal.  Using USSEC formulations, fishmeal usage was reduced by 10%-30% and U.S. soybean meal inclusion was increased from 16%-200% compared to their own diets.  In 2010, Marcela conducted its own comparative study of the USSEC formulated diets with their own formulations at their shrimp farm in Bohol, Philippines.  Results of the study showed no significant difference in terms of growth rate, feed conversion rates (FCR) and survival rates between the two diets, but the price per kilo of feed to produce a kilo of tiger shrimp, however, was cheaper by $0.23 (U.S.) per kilo using USSEC formulations, translating into a savings of $163,000 (U.S.) annually.  Marcela has adopted some of the USSEC soy optimized targets in their own formulations and continues to produce high quality feeds for shrimp culture.
Marcela expanded their operation by acquiring additional culture area and ventured into white shrimp culture in 2011.  In 2012, USSEC conducted a white shrimp comparative diet study to show the effectiveness of U.S. soy products as an alternative source of protein and replacement to fish meal.  In a recent field comparative study focusing on white shrimp diets, results showed that using a diet with more U.S. soybean meal produced a savings of $0.62 (U.S.) per kilo of shrimp compared to Marcela’s own commercial diet.  The usage of this white shrimp diet with greater U.S. soybean meal inclusion will translate to an annual savings of $435,400 (U.S.) for the company.