UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs endorses Aquatice 

Aquaculture company Kiotech, which makes products used in the farming of fish, has had an environmental risk assessment of its Aquatice range of products reviewed and approved by the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

This review and approval by Defra is a significant milestone and should help to simplify and shorten the normally complex and extended regulatory approval process for new additives. The approval should be particularly useful in the important Asian and Latin America markets, which account for around 80 per cent of world aquaculture production.

Kiotech’s chief executive Richard Edwards said: “This endorsement by Defra is a further significant and encouraging step along the road to obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals which will allow Kiotech to commence sales of its technology.”

Kiotech has also announced the completion of another successful growth trial using its Aquatice fish attractant. The latest application was for Pacific eel and took place in Southern China where the trial was devised by Cefas and carried out under the auspices of the Pearl River Institute. In the three month laboratory trial the mean weight of the combined replicates in the tanks containing eels treated with Aquatice was significantly greater than those in the control tanks. The feed conversion ratio was also considerably improved, which is particularly important as eel feed is over twice the price of conventional fish feed.

Eel aquaculture is an important industry in China and Japan. The total world output of eels is around 230,000 metric tonnes of which 70 per cent is from mainland China. Japan is the largest consuming country with an annual consumption of some 135,000 metric tonnes of which some 75 per cent comes from China.

 “This is another important step in the development of our patented Aquatice feed attractant, said Kiotech’s Richard Edwards. “The market for farmed eels, especially in Asia, is very large and presents us with an exciting opportunity to apply its unique growth technology to another aquatic species.”