soybean field

USSEC introduces SPC to Egyptian Market

Egypt1

USSEC and USSEC member Midwest Ag Enterprises are working together in Egypt to introduce soy protein concentrate (SPC) to a growing aquaculture market. USSEC organized an aquaculture seminar on optimized feed formulation for marine finfish and tilapia. A total of 95 participants attended the event, representing 40 of the top poultry and aqua feed producing companies and opinion leaders in Egypt’s aquaculture industry.
Egypt’s aquaculture sector has been growing at more than 10 percent per year for the past 10 years. Today, the aquaculture sector produces approximately 1.1 million tons of fish, 40,000 tons of which are marine fish. This number is expected to double by 2017 as Egypt unveils plans to establish 2,400 hectares of marine fish farms along the Suez Canal waterline. The project is expected to produce 50,000 tons of fish annually and annual demand for marine feed is expected to reach 200,000 tons. Current marine feed production capacity is only 1000 tons, leaving great opportunity in terms of improving quantity as well as quality of marine aqua feed.
USSEC feed milling specialist Tim O’Keefe met with several of the aqua feed producers to address specific technical questions about the use of U.S. SPC in diets for marine species. Aller Aqua, one of Egypt’s leading quality producers of feed, and Wadi Group expressed a keen interest in proceeding with the production and testing of a soy-based diet containing Nutrivance from Midwest Ag Enterprises. Wadi plans to independently register Nutrivance for importation and purchase feed for a trial with ten large cages of sea bass.
USSEC Marketing Director – Aquaculture/Customer Focus Colby Sutter attended the seminar and welcomed participants. Mr. O’Keefe delivered a presentation on feed formulation using soybean meal and SPC for sea bass and sea bream diets. Jim Moline, the president of Midwest Ag Enterprises, spoke about the nutritional advantage of SPC and USSEC speaker Sirri Kayhan, Regional Manager at Feed Management Systems Inc., concluded the seminar by demonstrating the economic advantage of using SPC to replace fishmeal.
The presentations’ main message emphasized the important potential of U.S. Soy in improving diet quality and performance, consequently providing an opportunity to increase returns for U.S. Soy farmers. Follow-up visits with feed manufacturers underlined the existing interest in marine feeds using SPC. All of the feed manufacturers visited have established projects to produce marine fish feed.
Mr. Moline participated in the follow-up visits and commented, “I am finding great opportunity for Nutrivance SPC in Marine Fish diets in Egypt. I see a quickly expanding marine aquaculture industry and the potential transition of the 80,000 tons of marine fish diets currently using trash feed. I am really excited to be on the ground floor in this market. I am especially excited to prepare shipment of Nutrivance to the Wadi Group to begin its use in sea bass diet formulations.”

Meeting with Hussien Mansour, CEO of Aller Aqua
Meeting with Hussien Mansour, CEO of Aller Aqua
Meeting with Ayman Rostom, general manager of G.M Skretting
Meeting with Ayman Rostom, general manager of G.M Skretting