The Fish 2.0 2017 business competition for sustainable seafood enterprises launched yesterday with a new track structure that will build seafood innovation networks in coastal regions around the world and create global networks around key opportunities in the seafood industry. “This new structure will ensure diversity among finalists and give investors a global perspective on emerging innovations in the seafood industry. It also begins to create regional networks that can support growing businesses, as well as global networks for innovators working on seafood’s biggest challenges.”

Alltech has released the results of their sixth annual Global Feed Survey, and it appears 2016 was a major mile marker for the global feed industry. For the first time, the world produced more than 1 billion metric tons of feed in a single year, and, interestingly, it did so with a 7 percent reduction in feed mills. Survey data was obtained from more than 30,000 feed mills in 141 countries, making this year’s analysis the company’s most robust to date. The results show that the U.S. and China are the top two countries, producing one-third of all animal feed, and that predominant growth came from the aquaculture sector among others.

The United States Aquaculture Society, National Aquaculture Association and North Central Regional Aquaculture Center are offering free access to the webinar entitled "Use of Veterinary Feed Directive Drugs in Aquaculture."

Joel G. Newman, President and CEO of the American Feed Industry Association, released a statement regarding Sonny Perdue as Secretary of Agriculture. \\\"AFIA works with USDA on a broad slate of issues such as trade and implementation of the farm bill. We look forward to working closely with the new agriculture secretary, assisting him and his staff on animal food-related topics, and how our industry relates to other agriculture sectors and to consumers. This will be particularly important as Congress, the administration and industry come together to draft and enact the new farm bill.\\\"

IFFO has published a position paper analyzing the forage fish dependency ratio (FFDR) to provide clear information on this complex debate. “There is often a lot of focus on the term FFDR in analyses of fed aquaculture’s environmental impact, but in reality the concept has little bearing on the harvest levels of forage fish populations although it was constructed to do exactly that.\"

French-Tunisian agri-tech startup nextProtein, which produces animal feedstock from insect larvae, has secured €1.3 million in fundraising to scale up its expanded operations in 2017. “I was struck by the scalability and sustainability of nextProtein’s model, leveraging the unused and otherwise useless inventory of organic waste to generate much needed protein to feed animals and supply organic fertilizer – all with almost no carbon footprint. Supporting them and investing in their business was an obvious choice.\"

The improvement of sea conditions after the impact of the El Nino phenomenon, and the changes in fishing regulations introduced by the Peruvian government, allow managers of a major fishmeal company to be optimistic this year. Manuel Salazar, general manager of Pesquera Diamante, expects that his company\'s sales and turnover will improve this year, from production of about 77,000 tonnes of fishmeal to about 150,000 tonnes in 2017.

Researchers at the Centre for Biological Research of the Northwest (CIBNOR), at its Unit in Nayarit (UNCIBNOR), have managed to reduce feeding costs by 50 per cent in tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fish farming, by adapting it to a biofloc system. \"The objective of the project has been to develop a multidisciplinary group of young doctors focused on solving in the medium and long term the problems that will face the repopulation of reservoirs and the cultivation of tilapia, initially in western Mexico and later at the national level.\"

At the 10th Aquafeed Horizons, Rafiq Ahmad, Industrial PhD candidate at Cargill Aqua Nutrition will explain how a study demonstrated that free amino acids and low molecular weight water-soluble peptides can replace moisture as a plasticizer in the extrusion process, offering the possibility to develop a new processing approach for the feed industry, serving multiple purposes, such as nutrient, plasticizer and binder in extruded fish feed.

Flint Hills Resources announced it will invest more than $50 million in its Fairmont, Neb. ethanol plant to install a new technology that will produce a high protein animal and fish feed ingredient from a portion of the plant’s distiller grains, a co-product of ethanol production. The high protein feed produced using MSC is a combination of corn gluten (protein) and spent yeast. It has an improved amino acid profile when compared to corn gluten meal produced at corn wet mills while also having a higher protein concentration than spent yeast alone. The MSC-produced feed will have at least 48 percent protein, making it an excellent ingredient for the aquaculture industry.

The IFFO RS Governance Board has ratified a proposal to review and enhance the IFFO RS program through the development of ‘Version 2.0’. The IFFO RS certification process includes two key components: the fishery assessment, and the factory assessment. The development of Version 2.0 includes a thorough review of both, and these are ready for Public Consultation for a period of 60 days beginning January 16th 2017. “We consider stakeholder involvement as very important for the development and credibility of the IFFO RS Certification Program. We would therefore welcome and encourage any comments or feedback regarding the revised fishery assessment criteria and the proposed factory audit criteria.\"

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing a public hearing regarding FDA initiatives for enhancing the safety of foods (for humans and animals) imported into the United States. The hearing will focus on partnerships to improve safety capabilities through capacity building; partnerships that inform risk-based decisionmaking; partnerships that recognize commodity-specific export programs; and partnerships that recognize the robustness of a nation’s entire food safety system.

EUMOFA has released results from a study aimed at surveying and analyzing EU consumer attitudes and habits regarding fishery and aquaculture products. The main purpose of the study was to survey and analyze the two components of the fishery and aquaculture product (FAP) market, namely the supply, represented in this specific instance by retailers, and the demand, represented by consumers, and corroborate the analysis with further qualitative and quantitative data on consumption trends in all EU Member States.

Evy Vikene has been appointed as Marketing Manager of Skretting Global Salmon. In this position Evy will have a strong focus on development and coordination of global marketing activities in collaboration with Skretting salmon feed operations.

Bühler and Protix have announced the establishment of Bühler Insect Technology Solutions. The joint venture will develop scalable, industrial solutions for the rearing, and processing of insects to provide protein primarily for animal feed and food. Initially, the focus will be on larvae of the Black Soldier Fly. Subsequently there will be a diversification to other insects, such as mealworms. “By combining the knowledge and experience of our two companies, we can provide industrial insect processing solutions to address the alternative protein market.”

A study published by the Centre for Research and Fisheries and Environmental Advice (Ideapesca) warns that \"Peruvian anchovy is at its worst\", as a result of a decrease in the biomass because of the depredation of the resource and the impact of El Niño phenomenon. Ideapesca’s study points out that due to a worrying decrease in the resource, the Peruvian Institute of the Sea (IMARPE) issued a report in 2013 recommending that the spawning biomass, to ensure a sustainable renewal of the stock, should be over 6 million tonnes, but lower values, never below 4 million tonnes, could be managed. However, it suggests that under pressure from the industry, the last fishing seasons were authorized despite the fact that the conditions for the fishing seasons were not optimal.

In order to reduce costs in rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) production, researchers from the Technological Institute of Tuxtepec (Ittux) have developed an aquaculture feed from the residues of beans. \"The idea starts from the need for producers to reduce production costs, so an economic raw material was used that does not affect the growth of rainbow trout. Much of the fishmeal was replaced with bean flour, without impacting the growth of the product.\"

Currently, tilapia farming in Tanzania is mostly for subsistence or for small-scale markets. To develop an aquaculture strategy for Tanzania, 30 scientists representing Tanzanian stakeholders as well as international research organizations met for a three-day workshop in Zanzibar. The main outcome of this workshop was a new consortium between the partners, committed to establishing a National Aquaculture Development Center (NADC). “Tilapia production could help meet the nutritional demands of our growing population in a sustainable way as well providing a surplus for export. We aim to triple the contribution of aquaculture to GDP from 1.4% to 4.2% by 2025.”

The Global Aquaculture Alliance has strengthened its presence in China through a cooperative agreement with the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA) to open an office in the Jing’an District of Shanghai. \"We are excited about this opportunity in China to continue to advance GAA’s commitment to responsible aquaculture production. As the leading aquaculture marketing association in China, CAPPMA is a great partner to work with. China is the largest consumer of seafood in the world, so if we’re really going to move the needle in regards to aquaculture improvements, we have to look to China for solutions.\"

The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) has released a new software system featuring an online portal that will allow processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills to apply for Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification and re-certification online. The purpose of the upgrade is to simplify and accelerate the process of attaining and retaining BAP certification as well as to allow market endorsers to individually track the BAP-certified facilities from which it sources farmed seafood through a customized database of BAP-certified facilities.