USSEC Southeast Asia (SEA) initiated the concept for aquaculture to hold large-scale aquaculture formulation workshops. Starting in 2019, this will be a global USSEC program.
USSEC kicked off this program with a conference in Jakarta, Indonesia on April 29 targeted at commercial aquaculture feed nutritionists and formulators in SEA. This event was followed by workshops in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand.
USSEC, along with other cooperators, worked to create the International Aquaculture Feed Formulation Database (IAFFD). The IAFFD is the first standardized, commercially viable, publicly available formulation database for aquaculture. The database was developed to target and train aquaculture formulators in large groups, similar to what was done by USSEC with the terrestrial animal industry. This was the fifth iteration of the workshop concept, which this year focuses more directly on commercial aquaculture formulators and moves to a collaborative relationship with commercial companies that can lead the formulation exercises.
“The IAFFD workshop has helped me to better formulate the feed with new software, the Bestmix, and access to [the] database. Formulation guidance from experts was also comprehensive,” says Savitri of the Matahari Sakti feedmill.
USSEC’s work with the IAFFD and holding formulation workshops directly impacts the role of USSEC to differentiate and promote U.S. Soy specifically. The formulation workshops demonstrate the value of U.S. Soy based on intrinsic quality through actual formulation to key target audiences. Several times during the workshop, U.S. Soy products organically became part of formulations created by the formulator based on quality of the nutrients.
In order to provide U.S. soy farmers with opportunities to “move the needle” for U.S. soy products, USSEC needs to clearly demonstrate the value of U.S. soy products to commercial feedmill formulators/nutritionists, as they are key influencers in the purchase of U.S. Soy.
The Nebraska and North Dakota QSSBs funded this effort. Nebraska has been a long-term supporter of this program.