Every year, BioMar Chile awards the top ten Farmer of the Year based on feed conversion rates. For the 2022 season, excellent results were again observed, the company said.

The average feed conversion ratio (FCRb) decreased by 1% compared to the 2021 ranking, reaching 0.99. From 2017 to 2022, the length of production cycles has been reduced by 21%, with fish using, on average, 6% more energy in feed, achieving a 21% increase in growth, and harvest weights around 5.44 kilos. A greater challenge associated with environmental variables has been observed, and sorted, year after year, with the support of functional diets and the technical support of BioMar, the company said.

The ten awarded Farmer of the Year BioMar 2022 are distributed among the regions of Los Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes. Four Australis centers are among the five best centers of the season, with an average FCRb of 1.018 and an average weight of 5.41 kilos. One of these farms achieved the best performance of 2022 with an FCRb of 0.990.

With an FCR of 1.00 and located in the Ninualac Canal, the Melchor 723 center from Yadrán, reached second place in the ranking. The biggest challenge was a three-month period with low oxygen levels affecting fish feeding. “A great work team knew how to overcome these obstacles, the feed was used efficiently and they finally achieved, in time and biomass, the objectives set, thus achieving, with our feed, the best historical performance of the company,” said Marco Sepúlveda.

The Taraba 4 Center, located in the first half of Seno Taraba, achieved the best historical result in the Magallanes Region. This is a highly relevant achievement since fish farming in the icy waters of the extreme south of Chile poses a greater challenge in terms of salmon growth and weight.

“We are proud of the work and efforts made together with our clients. The excellent results are within what we expected,” explained Marcelo Rojas, BioFarm manager. “Having ten farms with FCR between 0.99 and 1.06, with excellent harvest weights, and with five companies among these top ten, is a reward for the work that has been done in recent years, based on high-energy diets, such as Power Extreme, and personalized feeding strategies for each farming operation with products from the SmartCare range, allowing us to better address the production challenges of each site.”