Miao Weimin, FAO, provides an introduction and background brief to the Regional Consultation on Responsible Production and Use of Feed and Feed Ingredients for Sustainable Growth of Aquaculture in Asia-Pacific.

Due to the recent increase in aquaculture and the rising demand for marine ingredients for use in pelleted feeds, there is concern that aquaculture is contributing to the over-exploitation of fishing stocks. There is a growing need for aquaculture enterprises to be able to demonstrate responsible practices, including the source of any marine ingredients used in the compound feed. Responsible sourcing can be demonstrated by purchashing ingredients that have been approved under the IFFO RS standard.

Thai Union Feedmill's initiatives to address sustainability issues in aquaculture feed ingredients are discussed in this presentation.

Over the years, there have been two growing sustainability concerns with shrimp supply chain, namely human trafficking and environmental impacts. Solving these two issues can sometime result in conflicting agendas. This summary outlines CPF’s approach and experience in dealing with the two issues. The most difficult challenge in our experience is in building trust and understanding between the stakeholders, including governments and regulators, fisherfolk, commercial fishermen, suppliers and buyers. However, we feel that CPF is now a pioneer in our programs.

The Department of Fisheries is responsible for aquaculture sustainability, including food safety, animal health and welfare, environmental integrity, social and community welfare and regulation of fishing activities across the whole aquaculture supply chain. The Feed Quality Control and Development Division is responsible for registration and certification of feed formulas and monitoring of feed quality. In addition to input controls, end products are also subject to inspection and monitoring, certification and traceability systems.

China is the world's largest producer of aquaculture feeds. With the development of aquaculture, the feed industry has inevitably faced some challenges in promoting update of commercial feeds, pollution, use of trash fish, fish meal and fish oil issues, provision of accurate nutrition and feeding, antibiotic residues, food safety, and so on. In order to balance economic and environmental issues the Chinese Government released its 13th Five-year Plan last year. Trends and policy changes relevant to aquaculture are discussed.

Decisions on feeding often diverge from scientifically reasonable optima, resulting in excessive nutrient input, low feeding efficiency, self-pollution, high production cost and negative environmental impacts. Innovations in feeding technologies and farming practices to improve feed utilisation efficiency are crucially important for sustainability of aquaculture. In this presentation the author tries to present some innovative feeding manipulations at farm level, examine some farming systems and practices that favour higher ecological efficiency, and share some thoughts on innovations at farm level.

Concerns about the health and safety of consumers are the driving force for the enforcement of traceability systems for aquaculture products. DOF's strategy to improve food safety related to shrimp production is a “Farm-to-Table” approach. This has been implemented through the development of a Code of Conduct for the marine shrimp industry, establishment of Good Aquaculture Practices for hygienic shrimp production, and documentation requirements for movement of chemical agents and purchase of aquatic animals.

Reducing the dependency of aquaculture on fishmeal is key for sustainable development. Fish meal and fish oil ingredients are not nutritionally required for farmed fish to grow as essential nutrients can be obtained from other sources. Alternative ingredients have been widely used in different countries but are characterised to be inferior in protein content, with unbalanced amino acid profiles and the presence of anti-nutritional factors. Combining alternative ingredients to get the same balance is possible but requires research.

Studies on fishmeal substitution have been conducted on many aquaculture species and publications indicate that some can be grown on fishmeal-free feeds with amino acid supplements. Quantities of fishmeal and fish oil in feed formulations have been substantially reduced and it appears that inclusion levels can be further reduced without sacrificing growth performance and utilisation of nutrients. The potential to utilise alternatives to fishmeal and fish oil in aquaculture diets is reviewed and issues and gaps identified.

In this analysis the maximum and minimal amounts of feed required to produce finfish and shrimp in the region has been estimated. Globally a great deal of effort and time have been spent on issues related to fish meal and fish oil and aquafeeds. Ongoing practices thought to result in inefficient use of feed resources are highlighted and improvements shown. Information on feed usage in aquaculture in a few nations in the region are discussed and emerging issues highlighted.

It is estimated that around 1,061,173. tonnes of commercial aquaculture feeds were consumed on 2016. The aquaculture feed milling industry in the Philippines is presently  over capacity, based on the above-estimated feed requirement. The current primary law on animal feeds, which also covers aquaculture feeds, is under legislative review. Animal feeds ingredients standards are defined under administrative orders. Quality standards for finished aquaculture feeds are specified under the Philippine National Standards on Aquaculture Feeds (PNS/BAFPS 84: 2010).

This presentation gives an overview of aquaculture feed production and related issues in Vietnam.

Approximately 90% of aquaculture produce in Thailand are fed with a complete commercial feed. The Department of Fisheries is responsible for the licensing and registration of feed to be sold for commercial purposes. High quality fishmeal is a priority for aquaculture feed production especially for shrimp and marine fish and this has significantly affected feed cost. Most agricultural by-products are already utilised for purposes such as livestock, pet foods, fertilisers and biofuels, so competition for alternative ingredients is high.

Olive flounder and Korean rockfish make up over 60% out of total finfish production. However, marine fish culture heavily relies on farm-made feed. Although the Korean government has made various attempts to promote sustainable aquaculture, most farmers still prefer to use raw fish-based frozen pellets to compounded feed. To secure the sustainable growth of domestic aquaculture and feed production, the Korean government needs to press on with policy enforcement andresearch and development to provide low-priced compounded feeds.

Aquaculture has become an important sector in terms of its potential for increasing domestic supply of quality protein in Pakistan. Promising prospects exist for further growth in carp production due to high profitability and because there are about 2 million hectares of freshwater bodies (lakes, reservoirs and rivers) suitable for aquaculture. Fish farming in Pakistan is operating on an extensive or limited semi-intensive level and use of artificial feeds is limited, only having been introduced as a practice recently.

In mountain and hilly regions rainbow trout is the main fish species cultivated whereas carps, tilapia and pangasius are cultivated in the inner terai and terai region. Around 12,000 tonnes of pellet feed is used in aquaculture, of which about one third is imported from India. Around 60% of carps are fed with pellets or homemade feed. Around 40% of carp farmers, mainly small-scale, do not use any types of artificial feed but rely upon natural productivity of ponds.

Freshwater aquaculture in Myanmar is dominated by rohu, but other carps, tilapia and giant freshwater prawn are also cultured. At present around 25% of freshwater finish farmers in Myanmar are using commercial feeds from factory mills while the remaining 75% still use locally available rice bran only or rice bran and oil cakes. Soft shell mud crab and marine fish farming are thoroughly dependent on trash fish. A significant local feedmill industry exists, but many ingredients need to be imported.

 Aquaculture production is relatively recent in the Maldives in comparison to the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, with only one hatchery facility currently operational. Small-scale grow out operations for hatchery produced groupers as well as the hatchery production of milkfish as an alternative live feed for the pole-and-line fishery is expected to kick-off in the near future. The availability of by-product from the local tuna fishery has potential to support feed manufacture.

More than 293,000 tonnes of aquaculture feed was produced locally or imported to Malaysia in 2015. By 2020, it is estimated that almost 1.1 million tonnes of aquaculture feed will need to be produced. Discussions have been held with industry to expand capacity. DOF Malaysia is supporting good feed management, forumlation and nutrition practices by providing training courses for stakeholders. Farms and feed mills are audited with regards to feed and feeding processes based on MyGAP and legislative requirements.