Session 1b aquaculture business perspectives
BioMarine 2013 kicked off with hot topics challenging both the panel and the audience.
Opening the session for Aquaculture Business Perspectives, Steve Armstrong, CEO, Genome Atlantic spoke about the challenges feeding 9.6 billion by 2050.
"This is the equivalent of adding a new Halifax every two days in population terms, we have to produce 60 percent more food than ever before on less land and with less fresh water, so what are the road blocks, what needs to be done and how do we mitigate the risks?"
Mr Armstrong went on ask the panel to focus on five areas:
Key growth
Sustainability
Growth barriers
Balancing supply and demand
Social licence
Ross Butler, senior vice president, Cooke Aquaculture, Saint John's, New Brunswick, Canada spoke about his personal perspective, having grown up in St. John's Newfoundland and started fishing from the age of seven he concluded he has been involved within fishing for many years.
He felt Atlantic Canada had come to an economic cross roads, Butler went on to say, "commercial fishing has declined, there is no longer a single pork processing plant in Atlantic Canada, the majority of dairy farms have closed and agriculture has consolidated and relocated and 1000s of jobs in Atlantic Canada have been lost."
With his business partner Chris, who entered the feed industry in the early 1990s they are confident with their diverse back grounds, they can combine their feed and fishing knowledge to help grow aquaculture in Atlantic Canada.
With fishmeal in feed now often below 20 percent, there is a far greater focus on nutrition in feed. This has been the focus of Salmon feed for years, where huge developments have been made, this also goes for sea bass and sea bream.
"With the right approach to innovation and science which integrates into and enhances a diverse ecosystem we feel sure we can win support for fish farming in the region,” said Butler.
It was felt that the international community will continue to invest in the scientific approach to fish farming.
However, a word of caution was given by Ross Butler, "growth must go hand in hand with an increase in market demand for eating fish globally."
Next to comment was Oyvind Fylling-Jensen, CEO, Nofima, Norway, "Aquaculture and BioMarine is slowly getting its place on the world stage. 23 million tons of sea food is required to stay where we are per capita world wide over the next 20 years. 67 percent of feed is used for fresh water species which represents 58 percent of total aquaculture production."
Of course fish being produced must be palatable to the consumer. This represents massive opportunities for sea aquaculture, we all know fresh water production uses water, as our populations grow fresh clean water is a diminishing resource. Therefore, going forward sea farming is the only sustainable option. Though we still have hurdles to overcome such as climate change and demographic change, to name a few.
Patrick Lavens, business development & innovations director, INVE Aquaculture, Belgium suggested that we needed further integration in aquaculture, more vertically operated business where feed mills to hatcheries to fish farms are more seamless.
He argued there was a need to keep expertise across all sectors in one vertically integrated model where control, vets, technologists, farmers, nutritionists etc are all in place globally.
Patrick went on further to explain that combining species together fish and seaweed and mussel would meet the challenges of improving the Eco system within which we intend to farm. He urged everyone to form stronger alliances with all groups, biotech, chemical companies with farms and health all with the aim to improve a sustainable growth.
Lavens went on to say "We should look at combining aquaculture with oil sites and energy sites whilst at the same time focusing on the existing species we know most about".
Lavens suggested that he felt Asia will remain on top of global aquaculture production and that our focus should be on more stable outputs. Looking for solutions for Early mortality syndrome EMS in shrimp which is still a big problem in Asia and globally.
With effective management, better bio security and improvements in prophylactic treatments we need to focus on reducing the impact on the environment and with integration and consolidation there is a sustainable way forward.
Thad Simons president CEO Novus, USA, the last in the panel to speak started of by congratulating BioMarine for the sheer diversity of delegates.
Thad went on to explain that Novus produce nutritional supplements in the animal feed industry and they fully understand the opportunities and challenges ahead of them. Having grown their business within the poultry industry Thad spoke about the many countries that have modernised their feed industries including dairy, beef and pork and even pet food and human nutrition.
Thad finalised his opening statement by saying, "One of the most significant challenge for growth in aquaculture is that of social acceptance of aquaculture, the challenge going forward is, how do we make people understand the environmental issues, health issues, protein issues and sustainability issues.
"Novus is dedicated to researching feeding solutions, as we move to a vegetation diet not dissimilar to poultry feed, which we are historically used, we find ourselves working closely with the developing industry as it develops. And we have to earn our social licence."
In the issue of earning social licence, Ross Butler raised the requirement for a globally accepted third party certification and third party audit system. There needs to be legislation on how these are monitored and measured with the goal always in improving our systems. With salmon, only a small segment of the world can afford these products and on their own as a species, are not going to solve wold hunger. Also, it was strongly suggested that we need to look at other environmental issues affecting the oceans, such as waste reduction, water use, effluent reduction, plastics all of which leave a footprint on the ocean.
Olvynd, followed this up by talking about the challenges on finances in Aquaculture, and where in the industrialised world we are only focused on a few species this is not the case in developing worlds. “Here there is a different approach, they have a lack of knowledge, lack of infrastructure and lack of training, we must first answer three basic questions. 1) What do you farm, 2) where do you farm and 3) how do you farm. It is our job to bring technology to the developing countries, as you cannot just burn forests and dig ponds as this is not healthy.”
Patrick Lavens expanded these thoughts by adding that there is a real challenge of reducing costs, and involves integration which allows you to work with expertise; in disease management, breeding technology, functional diets and environmental control, however, will there still be room for the small players. Patrick thinks yes, he went on to explain that smaller players can join co-operatives and still benefit from expertise.
Thad Simons added further still and raised the concern of talent in aquaculture, which he referred to as ‘talent sustainability’. Thad said, “Agriculture in general is not seen as an attractive job to work in. I have seen this all over the world, everyone country has the same dilemma trying to attract new staff into aquaculture”.
Further elaborating “We need to build a value chain, where we can show young people that there are many exciting careers in aquaculture” In addition to this Thad highlighted the need to improve the link between the consumer, farmer, nutritionist and back to the consumer. A major obstacle to growth was the consumer and Thad rightly pointed out that they were not represented at BioMarine.
Furthermore, the industry needs to involve its media friends more to further spread the word and enlighten the public to the positive things happening in aquaculture.
The industry has to be more efficient and embrace working with small companies. It was felt that two areas for international cooperation are in conferences and sharing research, problems of course need solutions for everyone to move forward with science.
And lastly Thad spoke about the real need for local and national governments to support the industry. Implementing globally accepted legislations and regulations will drive productivity. There are huge marketing opportunities globally, where everyone can develop markets together with huge opportunities in Africa and the Far East.
In conclusion everyone agreed that it was critically important for the industry that there was a better alignment with government, and that the government was operating from a strong regulatory position as opposed to the current unpredictability and shifting focus.
The government needs to see objective results and businesses need to see new data and information and work together.
Thad Simons, CEO, Novus Inc, closed the session with his final thoughts:
How do we use the professional management we have learnt over the years to improve and mitigate risks
We must have a strong focus on feed management, training and husbandry.
We must respond rapidly and work together when problems arise.
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| Map highlighting Atlantic Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
