A new project led by a consortium of industry and research organizations, including the Skretting Aquaculture Research Center, is aiming to produce a rich source of protein for fish feeds using wood. The SYLFEED project will focus on upscaling a bio-refinery concept that can convert woody biomass into high-value Single Cell Protein (SCP) for use as animal feed. The overall objective of the SYLFEED project is to build a demonstration plant with the capacity of treating 15 tonnes of biomass per day, i.e. up to five thousand tons of biomass per year.

Schouw & Co., parent company of BioMar, released its interim report for the third quarter of 2017, which showed that consolidated revenue grew by 12%. In spite of an increasingly competitive market for fish feeds, BioMar reported strong growth in volumes sold, with the largest improvement occurring in the salmon business. However, developments in foreign exchange rates and prices of raw materials have curbed the revenue increase.

A businessman and farmer from South Africa won a grand prize trip to the Cleantech Open Global Forum competition next February in the US for his innovative use of dehydrated worms to make animal feed. Bandile Dlabantu‚ who won R120‚000 after winning first place in the local competition‚ said his dream was to expand his brand to other African countries. The feed by Dlabantu’s company‚ Khepri Meal™‚ is said to be cheaper than conventional feed‚ reducing the cost of animal farming.

NovoNutrients has developed a proprietary process which uses microbes to convert CO2 from industrial emissions into a feed ingredient for fish and other animals. NovoMeal is a nutritionally balanced, single-cell protein meal derived from a consortium of non-GMO, GRAS* microbes. It is a complete protein, with all ten essential amino acids needed by fish, as well as necessary fatty acids, vitamins, anti-oxidants and minerals. In addition to NovoMeal, NovoNutrients is also developing a line of feed additives.

Following elections for the new IFFO Management Board, the organization is pleased to announce that the incoming President is Eduardo Goycoolea and Vice President is Anne Mette Bæk Jespersen (starting January 1st 2018). IFFO’s Producer members elected representatives for their countries to the board in September and the President and Vice President were confirmed at the IFFO Board Meeting on 23rd October. “I would like to congratulate both Eduardo and Anne Mette on their appointments and we look forward to working closely with them. I would also like to thank our current President Mike Copeland, who with his many years of experience in the industry has been an excellent guide and representative for IFFO through these fast moving couple of years.”

Eight organizations from Spain, France, Ireland, Portugal and the United Kingdom have partnered to implement project INTEGRATE, which seeks to improve the environmental performance of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA). INTEGRATE is a three-year project that started in June 2017. Expected results include the creation of an Atlantic IMTA platform for sectorial collaboration and three pilot actions to develop Atlantic IMTA technology and farming techniques. “INTEGRATE will deliver tools to effectively increase competitiveness in Atlantic IMTA, unlocking sectorial green growth and improving the quality and public perception of aquaculture products.”

In advance of the November 13th Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) meeting, Omega Protein has reiterated its support for Atlantic menhaden ecological reference points, but maintains that they must be menhaden-specific and based on peer-reviewed science. At the meeting, the Board will vote on an amendment to determine whether or not the ASMFC will adopt interim ecological reference points. These interim reference points would dramatically reduce the menhaden harvest, according to a Menhaden Technical Committee analysis and the governing management philosophy for menhaden. Amendment 3 will also set the 2018 quota, and determine how that quota is allocated among the states.

The World Health Organization (WHO)  has issued guidelines recommending that farmers and the food industry stop using antibiotics routinely to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals. USDA says guidelines are not in alignment with U.S. policy.  

USSEC and its collaborators have created a standardized database of nutritional information for aquaculture species and key feed ingredients. “Every feed company has their own database, but bringing together aquaculture formulators from multiple companies is difficult because no one wants to share theirs. That is the value of having a publicly available aquaculture feed formulation database for use in-group situations. It’s important to note that this is not a USSEC database – it has international buy-in as an industry standard. We believe it will help to better show the nutritive values of U.S. soy to match the ingredient values.”

To celebrate the opening of the WAS Latin American & Caribbean Aquaculture 2017 Conference in Mazatlan, Mexico, November 7-10, 2017, the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society (JWAS) has compiled a Special Virtual Issue of papers with a Focus on Aquaculture Research in Latin America that highlights aquaculture research in the Latin American & Caribbean Region. Three of the eight papers are related to feed and feed ingredients.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales recently paid a visit to the Penang Headquarters of WorldFish. The Prince took the opportunity to discuss with WorldFish leadership and Fisheries Malaysia the fragility of ocean ecosystems and the vulnerabilities of the communities that engage with them. He expressed particular interest in the work WorldFish has done in the area of sustainable fish feed that did not draw on ocean resources and the institution\'s wider work towards achieving and contributing towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

NOAA Sea Grant has announced the award of $9.3 million in grants for 32 projects to advance the development of a sustainable marine and coastal aquaculture industry in the U.S. All projects include public-private partnerships and will be led by university-based Sea Grant programs. A couple of projects are related to aquaculture feeds and feed ingredients. One project will aim to address one of the major barriers in marine finfish aquaculture: poor larval survival that is largely due to poor nutrition and difficulties in nutrient delivery. Another project will optimize production systems and culture parameters to facilitate and implement copepod mass production at the producer level.

The ninth session of FAO’s Sub-committee on Aquaculture saw a strong focus on working together to overcome challenges facing the global aquaculture sector. The week brought together 188 delegates at FAO Headquarters in Rome hailing from 94 countries to take a critical look at how the sector can help achieve the objectives of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

A US feed ingredient startup, Midwest Ag Enterprises, (MWA), has recently launched a new advanced soy protein feed ingredient, which it claims can replace up to 100% of fishmeal during some stages of marine fish and shrimp growout in aquaculture. The firm has partnered with Mexico\'s XPAND-AG, a feed ingredient distribution startup, to sell these products throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

During a recent visit to WorldFish, Prince Charles expressed his concern over major challenges in the fish agri-food system where a large percentage of fish caught in the oceans ends up as feed for fish farming. The Prince expressed interest in the work WorldFish has done in the area of sustainable fish feed that did not draw on ocean resources and the institution\'s wider work towards achieving and contributing towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A new project titled the GoJelly project, coordinated by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Germany, is investigating potential uses for jellyfish as a source to produce fish feeds, microplastic filters, or fertilizers. The four-year project received EUR 6 million in funding from the European Union, and is being carried out by a consortium of 15 scientific institutions from eight countries. \"Fish in fish farms are currently fed with captured wild fish which does not reduce the problem of overfishing, but increases it. Jellyfish as feed would be much more sustainable and would protect the natural fish stocks.\"

The trū® Shrimp Company, an affiliate of Ralco, announced that it intends to build its first hatchery in Luverne, Minnesota. The hatchery will share a campus with the planned shrimp production facility, Luverne Bay Harbor. Luverne Cove Hatchery will provide for spawning and house larviculture tanks where small post larvae shrimp grow until they are mature enough to be transferred to a Harbor. The hatchery will be able to raise 2 million post-larvae annually, which is enough to supply two fully operational Harbors. “From a bio-security aspect we have been concerned about a hatchery being close to a Harbor. However, in our continuing development we have had an engineering and process breakthrough that enables the hatchery and Harbor to share the same campus.”

The University of Miami has produced a short video titled "The Business of Aquaculture," highlighting aquaculture research activities and opportunities at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The video features Daniel Benetti, the Rosenstiel School's Director of Aquaculture.

Spain-based tuna supplier Luis Calvo Sanz, known as Grupo Calvo, plans to invest €50 million ($58.1m) in Brazil to build a new plant with improved efficiency within the next ten years, integrating its current facilities in the country into one industrial complex. Gomes da Costa, Calvo\'s business in Brazil, is a leading tuna and sardine brand in the Brazilian market. The company has invested €3.5m in a by-products factory in Brazil for producing fishmeal, fish oil, as well as feed. The factory will currently testing its fishmeal production, the spokesman said.

USSEC, WorldFish, and Skretting have partnered in Egypt’s first Intensive Pond Aquaculture (IPA) system for tilapia production. The USSEC team met with WorldFish staff to review the several-month feeding demonstration, which is being conducted in an IPA production system with the use of high-quality U.S. Soy based feed produced locally by Skretting. Initial results showed a positive 20 to 25 percent faster growth rate; full IPA demonstration results will be available later this winter.