New! IAF article: Interview with Peter Coutteau, Nutriad

In this issue we talk to Peter Coutteau, business unit manager aquaculture, Nutriad, Belgium about the increasing popularity of natural ingredients in aquafeeds and the challenges the aquaculture industry faces. 

The interview as it appears in the magazine is available here. However, I wanted to share the full interview which is below.

Peter Coutteau was first introduced to aquaculture as an undergraduate at the University of Gent, Belgium in the 1980s. Since his career has spanned both the academic and business sides of the industry working at the Laboratory for Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center and the INVE group respectively.
Following a restructuration of the INVE group in January 2009, all activities of INVE Aquaculture related to feedmill specialties and farm nutrition, including the support team, research activities, test centers and product lines of aquaculture additives, were incorporated into Nutriad, global supplier of specialty additives in aquaculture and agriculture.
Coutteau set up Nutriad’s specialised business unit to further develop the feed additive business in aquaculture. Nutriad had been active in aquaculture since the very beginning but lacked a species-specific focus for aqua.

Peter Coutteau, business unit manager aquaculture, Nutriad, Belgium

What’s Nutriad’s philosophy or ethos?

Nutriad’s mission is to design and deliver value adding products and solutions for partners in animal nutrition and health around the world. We want to cultivate trust and respect in each other, our customers, our business partners, our community and all our stakeholders. We aim to operate with the highest levels of integrity and strive for excellence in all we do. We are proud of our business and what it stands for; we are passionate about what we do.

Natural ingredients and nature play a big role in your products and the promotion of the company.  Why this emphasis?

The use of natural alternatives to antibiotics and synthetic products is a growing trend in the feed industry. Our logo ‘Applying Nature’ can be found in the basics of most of our feed additives. The application of natural compounds derived from a variety of sources including yeasts, botanicals, peptides, and animal by-products is at the top of the agenda of our researchers in the different species. The list of activities we source from natural compounds includes bactericide action, digestive stimulation, immune-stimulation, anti-oxidants, anti- parasitics to name a few.

We have discovered several innovative synergistic combinations of natural compounds which today are successfully applied to reduce the impact of diseases and parasites in the farming of fish and shrimp.

Why/how are Nutriad additives ‘smart’?

Additives are ‘smart’ when they are based on a solid understanding of market and customer needs. Also, they need to be designed through a creative approach to product development, which is combining fundamental knowledge, lab testing and field verification to reach a solution that is satisfactory in terms of efficacy but at the same time realistic in terms of time required to reach the solution and cost for the end-user. The result is an effective solution for animal nutrition and health challenges faced by our customers.

We are not just suppliers of products, we work with customers to truly solve their problems. It is only like that that we can build a long lasting sustainable relation. Due to our global coverage we understand local environments and can combine that with global knowledge. Our customers benefit from these synergies.

What are the biggest challenges aquaculture faces?

As Nutriad covers all species, the differences in development stages of the industry become more clear. Aquaculture has grown at a staggering speed the past two decades with several species developing from scratch: salmon, penaeid shrimp, bass, bream, tilapia, pangasius.
Aquaculture is a young industry, which in practice means that producers (and their suppliers) in most countries are in the transition between the first and the second generation. The global aquafeed sector is volume wise 25 times smaller than the agri-feed industry and at the same time enormously diverse in terms of species, formulations, culture intensity, climatological and cultural conditions.
This results in a geographic fragmentation of the feed business which makes it much more challenging for an additive supplier to develop a global business. By contrast the live stock business is dominated by monogastrics, swine and poultry, with more commonly accepted farming practices around the world. The aqua business is much more dynamic than the agri business, and is facing still major challenges due to its recent and fast development.

What about from a technical point of view?

Reducing the impact of outbreaks of diseases and parasitic infestations on production efficiency is surely one of the biggest challenges, particularly under conditions where cost efficiency is calling for lower cost feeds and higher culture density in the farm.

Also, improving the sustainable use of marine ingredients will remain on the agenda till we need only minor percentages of fishmeal and fish oil anymore in the feed of carnivorous species of fish and shrimp. 

And for businesses?

From a business perspective, aquaculture production of many species is still under full organisation and that affects all the stakeholders in the industry. The salmon industry is the most structured aqua industry in terms of legislation, organisation of the processing chain and export activity, transparency, health prevention and genetic programs. We are seeing similar developments in other major producing countries such as the shrimp industry in Thailand and pangasius in Vietnam but there is still a long way to go and a lot of aquaculture volume continues to be produced in less organised business environments.

How is Nutriad responding to these various challenegs?

The aquafeed market offers great opportunities for the development of innovative feed additives. There is still an enormous potential to reduce feed cost and improve health prevention through dietary supplements. The significant improvements in production efficiency and cost observed during field-testing of some of our digestibility enhancers and health promoting additives confirm this potential. However, this industry is fragmented over many different species and regions, each with their specific challenges and problems. Therefore, only companies that invest strongly in innovation and specialised customer support can play a significant role in the development of a more sustainable and profitable aquaculture industry.

Innovation: At Nutriad, a multidisciplinary team of nutritionists, biologists, veterinarians and feed technologists focus on the specific development and optimal application of feed additives for various aquaculture species. Our innovation is powered by a continuous screening program to discover novel concepts in collaboration with external collaborative research at various universities and institutes around the globe. Selected products are further checked under our customer’s field conditions before market release. The competences of our scientists have led up to important innovations in aquaculture nutrition and health care.

Specialised customer support: Our aqua unit counts with regional experts, people with over ten years of practical experience in aquafeed milling, who understand the specifics of the locally farmed species and develop application guidelines for our products adapted to the local conditions and feed formulations. We exchange these experiences from different species and culture conditions with our customers world-wide. This helps our customers to reach better profitability, sustainability and product quality for the consumer.

Food safety is very important to everyone involved in the industry. How does Nutriad ensure the safest possible products?

Food safety starts from the ingredient selection at the stage of product design. Every ingredient we use is carefully selected for quality and feed chain security. Nutriad is producing in different locations in Belgium, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and China. All manufacturing facilities operate to the highest quality standards and systems that are independently audited. We ensure full traceability and product integrity to our customers. Nutriad has invested the past year in a brand new production plant in the port of Antwerp, Belgium. Furthermore, the aquaculture specialty products are fully complying EU regulations and produced in a completely separate production line in Belgium.

What new products is Nutriad working on?  

The product portfolio for aquaculture is focused on specialty additives developed through years of research under lab trials and field verification under production conditions in the field. Novel specialties offer solutions to key issues in the aquaculture feed industry, including AQUAGEST® (species specific digestibility enhancers to reduce feed cost and improve performance in different species of fish and shrimp), AQUABITE® (palatability enhancers and attractants), and a broad range of additives supporting the prevention of diseases and parasitic infections (SANACORE®, AQUASTIM®, APEX® AQUA). Nutriad is the first additive company to apply Quorum Sensing technology in practice to reduce pathogenicity of bacterial pathogens in aquaculture and livestock. Recently, Nutriad has launched new products with well-documented activities on the inhibition of quorum sensing of bacterial pathogens which result in significantly improved yields in aqua/agri production.

What do you think the future of the company is?

Our mission is to provide specialty solutions that meet the current and developing needs of the aquaculture industry. We will succeed by establishing partnerships with our customers and suppliers; by developing valuable, innovative products and systems with an emphasis on product quality, effectiveness and safety. In aquaculture, the challenges are diverse and complex. In the coming years, we plan to continue our expansion into all major aquaculture markets and broaden our innovation capabilities to tackle the problems of this very dynamic industry.

Anything else you’d like to tell International Aquafeed readers about?

Take care of your health, eat more fish and shrimp!

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