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.

Around 73% of total fisheries production originated from aquaculture including fish culture in ponds, community fish culture in oxbow lakes and irrigation weirs, rice-fish culture and cage culture. Commercial feed is typically only used in pond culture. In other production systems some supplementary feeding may be conducted using local materials. Integrated fish farming with livestock is also practiced using various species of carp, barbs, catfish, gourami and snakeheads. Existing local feed factories have considerable spare capacity.

As aquaculture production expands in Indonesia more feed is needed. It was estimated that in 2015 feed usage for main Indonesia’s cultured commodities reached 8.9 million tonnes, raising issues related to the availability of feed raw materials, many of which are imported. The Indonesian government has launched a “self-sufficient fish feed” programme, aimed at reducing the dependence on imported raw materials, especially fishmeal, by using locally available ingredients for feed. The availability of local feed ingredients is discussed.

About 0.75 million tonnes of shrimp feed was produced during 2016, with roughly equal quantities of freshwater fish feed produced. Although shrimp farming is fully dependent on formulated feeds, freshwater finfish farming is still transitioning to use of pelleted feeds. High value coastal carnivorous fin fish continues to be produced via a combination of trash fish and formulated feeds. Fishmeal inclusion in shrimp feed formulations has fallen substantially. The availability of feed ingredients in India is discussed.