An
overview of Julian Conway McGill’s presentation from the BIOMIN World Nutrition
Forum by Matt Holmes, Features editor, International Aquafeed
Julian Conway McGill works for consultancy LMC international - a leading independent economic and business consultancy for the agribusiness sector around the world. Dr McGill is the head of south east Asia at LMC and he gave a presentation to the World Nutrition Forum in Cape Town, South Africa called: ‘Plenty of fish: How will the choice of species being domesticated influence aquafeed demand?’
The growth in beef production has been slower than pork and chicken. This also combines with the perceived health benefits of white meat.
“A less commonly noted though equally remarkable transformation, has been the growth in aquaculture production,” says Dr McGill. “Fish are even more efficient than livestock at converting feed into edible weight. As fish are buoyant, do not expend energy to warm their body and as they excrete nitrogen waste directly through their gills, they are able to channel more energy into weight gain than land animals.”
Livestock, by contrast, need to expend energy to stand, maintain their body temperature and convert ammonia into urea among other energy requiring functions.
“Aquaculture therefore has the potential to be a very efficient source of meat”, he continues. “At their most efficient, salmon can achieve a ratio of one-to-one, with each kilogram of feed resulting in a kilogram of additional meat. This makes them 20 times as efficient at converting feed to meat as cattle.”
Advantages of aquaculture
One of the challenging aspects of aquaculture is the sheer variety of different species in the sea with over 400 types of fish being successfully farmed as compared with fewer than 10 land animals. Dr McGill explains fish can be split into two broad categories: bulk white fish and luxury fish.
Bulk white fish farming has grown exponentially, thanks to its hardiness compared to higher value fish. These species provide protein at a low price and demand has been increasing with growing population. They have also replaced cheap fish from wild fisheries. The growth in these species has been predominantly driven by rapid production growth in China and South East Asia and is narrowly concentrated into three main groups: carp, catfish and tilapia.
Read more HERE.
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| Dr Julian Conway McGill |
Julian Conway McGill works for consultancy LMC international - a leading independent economic and business consultancy for the agribusiness sector around the world. Dr McGill is the head of south east Asia at LMC and he gave a presentation to the World Nutrition Forum in Cape Town, South Africa called: ‘Plenty of fish: How will the choice of species being domesticated influence aquafeed demand?’
The growth in beef production has been slower than pork and chicken. This also combines with the perceived health benefits of white meat.
“A less commonly noted though equally remarkable transformation, has been the growth in aquaculture production,” says Dr McGill. “Fish are even more efficient than livestock at converting feed into edible weight. As fish are buoyant, do not expend energy to warm their body and as they excrete nitrogen waste directly through their gills, they are able to channel more energy into weight gain than land animals.”
Livestock, by contrast, need to expend energy to stand, maintain their body temperature and convert ammonia into urea among other energy requiring functions.
“Aquaculture therefore has the potential to be a very efficient source of meat”, he continues. “At their most efficient, salmon can achieve a ratio of one-to-one, with each kilogram of feed resulting in a kilogram of additional meat. This makes them 20 times as efficient at converting feed to meat as cattle.”
Advantages of aquaculture
One of the challenging aspects of aquaculture is the sheer variety of different species in the sea with over 400 types of fish being successfully farmed as compared with fewer than 10 land animals. Dr McGill explains fish can be split into two broad categories: bulk white fish and luxury fish.
Bulk white fish farming has grown exponentially, thanks to its hardiness compared to higher value fish. These species provide protein at a low price and demand has been increasing with growing population. They have also replaced cheap fish from wild fisheries. The growth in these species has been predominantly driven by rapid production growth in China and South East Asia and is narrowly concentrated into three main groups: carp, catfish and tilapia.
Read more HERE.
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