The U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) conducted workshops across Southeast Asia in early May in an effort to increase the production of sustainable marine fish aquaculture species in the region. The workshop series was titled “Development of a Sustainable, High-Volume, Export-focused Marine Fish Aquaculture Sector in Southeast Asia” and was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Jakarta, Indonesia; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Manila, Philippines.
The workshops brought together representatives from government, industry associations, international buyers, certification programs, and exporters to discuss and outline what the Southeast Asian marine fish aquaculture industry should do to target the international export market.
Southeast Asia (SEA) has a significant number of high-quality fish processing facilities for land-based aquaculture production and wild-caught fisheries, but the marine fish aquaculture industry remains largely outdated and behind global trends towards larger scale, industrial marine fish cage farms that operate in offshore areas. With the expectation that a rapid advancement in the uptake of production technology will lead to significant increases in the volumes of marine fish, the theme of the workshops was to prepare the overall industry in SEA to plan correctly for supplying an export market. This is due to the feeling that domestic and regional markets in SEA would likely have difficulty in absorbing a rapid increase in marine fish production, at least initially, and international markets are looking for high quality marine fish products from aquaculture.
Lukas Manomaitis, USSEC Technical Director for Southeast Asia, spoke at the workshop and led the team that put on the workshops. “We were energized by the regional industry turnout and the overall interest in growing this sector of the industry. We are confident that the conversations and discussions that were had by the industry stakeholders at these workshops will set the foundation for significant sustainable, feed-based marine fish aquaculture production in these countries. In turn, this will increase markets for high quality U.S. soy feed ingredients.”
Among the speakers at the workshops was Matt Brooker, Business Development Manager for The Fishin’ Company. Brooker brought an export-focused buying perspective to the workshop and provided insight into the growing standards and requirements of the North American and European seafood markets.
Scott Zimmerman of Safe Quality Seafood Associates was in attendance to provide his expertise in certification programs and auditing, along with Isidor Yu of GlobalGAP and Nguyen Thanh Binh of the BAP program. Langley Gace and David Kelly of Innovasea Systems were also on hand as global experts in the open-ocean aquaculture industry. Their expertise in sustainable technologies and equipment innovation provided opportunities for detailed discussions into the execution of a Southeast Asian marine fish aquaculture industry developing in offshore cages.
Breakout sessions covering Government, Trade, Sustainability, and Industry topics were conducted at the workshops. USSEC has plans to produce white papers covering these topics to allow for the key takeaways to be used as a resource for future implementation.
