International Aquafeed columnist Roy Palmer attended last week's GOAL, the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s 2013 conference in Paris, France, from 7-10 October, and reports on Day 2 & 3 here:
Ted Danson and the anti-aquaculture people are not going to like this but according to Andrew Mallison from the International Fishmeal and Fish Oil Organisation the average ‘fish in:fish out’ for all aquaculture seafood is 0.3:1 whole fish in all feed …
Poor Ted still keeps quoting the figures from many years ago so we need to bring him and his followers up to date. Can someone please pass this fact onto him?
Mallison pointed out that carnivorous fish in the wild consume as much as 10:1 and thus the aquaculture carnivorous average of 1.4:1 is an incredible compelling story – why are the general press not highlighting this massive achievement? While this is all true it must be pointed out that we still have much room for improvement in creating sustainable feeds - and oils.
As an example, Robins McIntosh and Duncan Leadbitter discussed the opportunity for improvement in Thailand. It is good that the industry and government are making some hard decisions on the harvesting of fish for fishmeal and that organisations in the chain are involved in helping to find solutions. Everyone needs to consider these issues and engaging, rather than avoiding the problem.
Robins, in his straight forward style, highlighted how his company was engaged through Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Fish Fight and the lessons they learned. As a result of this encounter they created a ten point plan which they are auctioning.
An interesting presentation by Antoine Hubert from Ynsect highlighted what the future could be based on insect genetics, insect zoo-technical studies, insect biochemistry and process engineering as we seek new and innovative opportunities in the feed area.
The discussion on the whole subject on feed sustainability spilled over in to the afternoon with Melanie Siggs facilitating the group.
The other subject for the day was the Middle East and Africa as we heard about progress being made and problems still existing in those areas. An array of experts gave presentations covering industry, government, finance, investments, etc. and in the afternoon those interested in getting more in-depth information worked through the issues with Jim Greenberg, Izzat Feidi and Tim Huntingdon. The main issue that came out of this was the possibility of getting a consistent approach for investors.
Clearly new countries seeking to get involved in aquaculture need to create workable opportunities for investors and as some of these issues are consistent across all there is an opportunity for an organisation like FAO or The World Bank to build a template that all countries could complete. This would save much time for those interesting in investing.
A mistake that many in the western world make is to view the whole area as the same but the experts advised that every country has different prospects, different conditions, etc. so it is necessary to do your homework in some detail.
One thing that stood out to me was that this whole area of the world will become very important in aquaculture, not only feeding itself but also creating export opportunities. I am looking forward to seeing more on this subject at the MENA Seafood Summit at SEAFEX in Dubai, UAE on 17/18 November 2013.
Day three at GOAL was started by Carl-Christian Schmidt from OECD presenting on ‘Green Growth’ and the implications for fisheries and aquaculture. He particularly mentioned the differences between fisheries (natural renewable resource but with potential broader eco-system impacts) and aquaculture (controlled production system with issues to resolve in feed, medicine, escapees and competition for space with other users). Isn’t it strange how so many Governments combine the two issues and then wrap them around conservation and environment issues thus sucking the life out of aquaculture instead of assisting it to grow?
“To achieve comprehensive Green Growth we need a new way of thinking regarding ocean governance within which we can better gauge and make necessary trade-offs,” was an important statement made by Carl, I thought.
A good briefing on the EU and, in particular, French market was presented by Marie Christine Monfort. In her research Marie found that farmed seafood has an excellent image with few negative attributes, and, of those, many seemed to be more about perceptions than facts. We learnt that in France mussels were the largest farmed product sold with 190,000 MT followed by Salmon (180,000 MT); shrimp (130,000 MT); oysters (80,000MT) and trout (35,000 MT).
The array of food service and supermarket specialists attending the event was highlighted with three panels of world leading organisations which emphasized some of the differences between UK, EU and North American organisations. It was good to hear the passion that they had for seafood, their issues and their commitment to engage.
The event concluded with Travis Larkin giving his regular closing speech pointing out the lessons he has learnt through the event.
Well done to all – the event was well attended and well run and it all moves onto Ho Chi Minh City in 2014 but last word to the event which is on top of mind for all industry players at the moment goes to Robins McIntosh who spoke candidly about the EMS disease in shrimp – "It’s complicated and it’s a perfect killer" –so let us hope for all those in the important shrimp industry that the experts can solve the problem.
Ted Danson and the anti-aquaculture people are not going to like this but according to Andrew Mallison from the International Fishmeal and Fish Oil Organisation the average ‘fish in:fish out’ for all aquaculture seafood is 0.3:1 whole fish in all feed …
Poor Ted still keeps quoting the figures from many years ago so we need to bring him and his followers up to date. Can someone please pass this fact onto him?
Mallison pointed out that carnivorous fish in the wild consume as much as 10:1 and thus the aquaculture carnivorous average of 1.4:1 is an incredible compelling story – why are the general press not highlighting this massive achievement? While this is all true it must be pointed out that we still have much room for improvement in creating sustainable feeds - and oils.
As an example, Robins McIntosh and Duncan Leadbitter discussed the opportunity for improvement in Thailand. It is good that the industry and government are making some hard decisions on the harvesting of fish for fishmeal and that organisations in the chain are involved in helping to find solutions. Everyone needs to consider these issues and engaging, rather than avoiding the problem.
Robins, in his straight forward style, highlighted how his company was engaged through Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Fish Fight and the lessons they learned. As a result of this encounter they created a ten point plan which they are auctioning.
An interesting presentation by Antoine Hubert from Ynsect highlighted what the future could be based on insect genetics, insect zoo-technical studies, insect biochemistry and process engineering as we seek new and innovative opportunities in the feed area.
The discussion on the whole subject on feed sustainability spilled over in to the afternoon with Melanie Siggs facilitating the group.
The other subject for the day was the Middle East and Africa as we heard about progress being made and problems still existing in those areas. An array of experts gave presentations covering industry, government, finance, investments, etc. and in the afternoon those interested in getting more in-depth information worked through the issues with Jim Greenberg, Izzat Feidi and Tim Huntingdon. The main issue that came out of this was the possibility of getting a consistent approach for investors.
Clearly new countries seeking to get involved in aquaculture need to create workable opportunities for investors and as some of these issues are consistent across all there is an opportunity for an organisation like FAO or The World Bank to build a template that all countries could complete. This would save much time for those interesting in investing.
A mistake that many in the western world make is to view the whole area as the same but the experts advised that every country has different prospects, different conditions, etc. so it is necessary to do your homework in some detail.
One thing that stood out to me was that this whole area of the world will become very important in aquaculture, not only feeding itself but also creating export opportunities. I am looking forward to seeing more on this subject at the MENA Seafood Summit at SEAFEX in Dubai, UAE on 17/18 November 2013.
Day three at GOAL was started by Carl-Christian Schmidt from OECD presenting on ‘Green Growth’ and the implications for fisheries and aquaculture. He particularly mentioned the differences between fisheries (natural renewable resource but with potential broader eco-system impacts) and aquaculture (controlled production system with issues to resolve in feed, medicine, escapees and competition for space with other users). Isn’t it strange how so many Governments combine the two issues and then wrap them around conservation and environment issues thus sucking the life out of aquaculture instead of assisting it to grow?
“To achieve comprehensive Green Growth we need a new way of thinking regarding ocean governance within which we can better gauge and make necessary trade-offs,” was an important statement made by Carl, I thought.
A good briefing on the EU and, in particular, French market was presented by Marie Christine Monfort. In her research Marie found that farmed seafood has an excellent image with few negative attributes, and, of those, many seemed to be more about perceptions than facts. We learnt that in France mussels were the largest farmed product sold with 190,000 MT followed by Salmon (180,000 MT); shrimp (130,000 MT); oysters (80,000MT) and trout (35,000 MT).
The array of food service and supermarket specialists attending the event was highlighted with three panels of world leading organisations which emphasized some of the differences between UK, EU and North American organisations. It was good to hear the passion that they had for seafood, their issues and their commitment to engage.
The event concluded with Travis Larkin giving his regular closing speech pointing out the lessons he has learnt through the event.
Well done to all – the event was well attended and well run and it all moves onto Ho Chi Minh City in 2014 but last word to the event which is on top of mind for all industry players at the moment goes to Robins McIntosh who spoke candidly about the EMS disease in shrimp – "It’s complicated and it’s a perfect killer" –so let us hope for all those in the important shrimp industry that the experts can solve the problem.
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