Thursday, March 6, 1pm MST
Costco's top aquaculture species
According to Costco's Assistant General Merchandising Manager Ken Kimble, the club store's top three highest-selling aquaculture species are on par with what one would predict.
"Right now, salmon is our workhorse," he said. "Shrimp is right in there and then tilapia."
Kimble went on to say that Costco's seafood sales are more than $1.5 billion yearly, 50 percent of which is aquaculture.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Thursday, March 6, 11am MST
What a fraud!
Although other conference attendees have expressed doubt on how accurate media reports of fraud are, University of Miami's Dan Benetti said "it's incredible what's going on" in some retailers.
He saw for himself in Miami supermarkets that species like basa "are more expensive than swordfish" -- a ludicrous notion.
Benetti also showed real retailer advertisements touting "wild caught fresh tilapia fillets."
"Does that even exist?" Benetti asked the audience incredulously, eliciting laughs.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Thursday, March 6, 9:50am MST
What Baja California and the US have in common
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Aquaculture Program Director Michael Rubino attended the event, saying that the Mexican state that houses La Paz and the United States have much in common regarding aquaculture.
"We're both at an early stage of development," he said to the audience. "We can both learn a lot from the rest of the world."
He said while the FAO listed the US as #1 in the world for offshore fish farming potential, "we're further down the list in terms of actual feasibility, in part because we have a difficult regulatory system."
However, he said, "I think that's about to change" due to more fishermen, working with quota cutbacks, are venturing into aquaculture, as well as top West Coast companies such as Trident Seafoods, Icicle Seafoods and Pacific Seafoods investing in aquaculture.
This shouldn't worry Latin American producers, Rubino assured.
"The market potential is huge," he said. "There's a lot of potential to work together."
--Avani Nadkarni
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Thursday, March 6, 9:30am MST
Pacific red snapper to Costco
Costa Rican farming company Martec's Carlos Lara spoke of his company's work in the development of vertically-integrated Pacific red snapper aquaculture.
Martec, which Lara said pulls in about $35 million in annual sales, expects 140 tons of the species from its first harvest, which will produce whole 3/4 of a pound to 1 pound fish.
"We're selling this mainly to Costco," Lara said, although Darden Restaurants is another main Martec customer.
In farmed species, Martec mainly deals in trout and snapper.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Thursday, March 6, 9:15am MST
The best diet is...*
Jorge Suarez shared what he called "valuable information" that his team found regarding fish nutritional requirements, particularly for Florida pompano.
"The diet that has the lowest protein-energy ratio showed significant differences," he said. "It was lower in weight gain, feed efficiency and feed conversion ratio."
They found that a diet that had between 23.3 and 26.2 mg kj of energy were optimal for growth, feed efficiency and feed conversion ratio.
"This is very valuable information," Suarez said.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Thursday, March 6, 9am MST
Feed trials and tribulations*
University of Miami's Jorge Suarez spoke of fish feed during his Thursday morning presentation.
"We're not talking about 100 percent replacement," he said. "That's not the goal. We can't have an industry based on fish feed ... we need to know what's the maximum" fishmeal can be replaced "without harming our fish."
--Avani Nadkarni
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Thursday, March 6, 8:15am MST
Turkey = Fish
Kilic Aquaculture's Hayri Deniz educated the audience about aquaculture in Turkey, which he said is quietly growing.
The country has more than 1,800 fish farms: 54 percent of Turkey's aquaculture production is in trout, 31 percent in seabass, 30 percent in sea bream and about 1 percent in other species.
Between 2002 and 2012, the nation's production shot up 247 percent and it now has a 33 percent share of Europe's bass and bream market, with 25,000 employees in the sector.
Turkey also holds first place in European trout production and is the third fastest-growing country in the world in aquaculture production.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, March 5, 2:48pm MST
Boutique farms*
Dan Benetti spoke of what he says the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) dubbed "boutique farms," smaller farmers who have "been a full success."
The myth is that in aquaculture you need to be big to make money, but Benetti said this strategy is working for some Latin American farmers, who can't sell their smaller fish to the United States.
"There's a niche market for the species," he said. "You can't sell small fish [in the US] but in Brazil, they're selling them for $17 a pound."
--Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, March 5, 2:30pm MST
Can't wait til they're gone...*
Although University of Miami's Dan Benetti and his team have the technology to produce mahi mahi, he said the industry shies away from the species.
"People in the industry tell us mahi mahi aquaculture isn't necessary because it's already in the wild," he said during his afternoon presentation. "But we already have the technology ... and in the future we may not have so much mahi."
--Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, March 5, 12:10pm MST
Politicians: Lack of interest or information?
"There's a belief that politicians don't care ... but 60 to 70 percent of the time, they don't know the issues, no one's come up to them. It's not a lack of interest, it's a lack of information," said Roberto Arosemena of the Mexican fisheries commission.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, March 5, 12:10pm MST
Political implications*
In Ecuador, farms within eight miles of the coastline can only be used for artisan sea farming. Farms from eight miles onward can be regular cage farms, said Jose Antonio Camponsano, president of Cámara Nacional de Acuacultura (the National Aquaculture Chamber).
"This has serious political implications," he warned.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, March 5, 12:10pm MST
Advice from Norway
Vitamar Director Bjorn Myrseth, who made the journey from Norway to La Paz, had some advice for those interested in developing aquaculture in Baja California and other parts of Mexico.
Instead of trying to be a jack-of-all-trades, Myrseth said, "concentrate research and development on two to three high value species," he advised.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, March 5, 10:45am MST
From the heartland to the sea
As Kampachi Farms Co-Founder and Co-CEO Neil Sims gets ready to open up a kampachi farm in La Paz, he said the Hawaii research facility is still thriving.
During a coffee break in the conference, Sims told IntraFish that the research center has developed three separate kampachi diets using no fishmeal, with "no measurable difference" in the fish.
One diet even uses no fish oil, utilizing soy oil instead.
"We want to be able to marry the heartland of America with the blue horizon," Sims said.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, March 5, 10:15am MST
Using one voice
Humberto Villareal, scientific director of CIBNOR research center in Baja California, spoke of the immense aquaculture potential of northwestern Mexico, which produces 46 percent of the country's aquaculture in tonnage and nearly 70 percent in value.
But, he said, the Mexican aquaculture industry needs to speak as one, something they haven't done.
"If you [look at] coffee in Colombia, they have one voice," he said. "But if you go to aquaculture in Mexico, everyone is speaking their own language."
He said the industry needs to "improve knowledge on the species we want to work with" -- such as yellowtail.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, March 5, 9:45am MST
Aquaculture's biggest challenge
He's not the first person to say this, but when Global Aquaculture Alliance's (GAA) George Chamberlain video-conferenced in to the workshop to say "the number one challenge [for aquaculture] by far is disease and disease management," the room of industry experts listened intently.
Chamberlain spoke of three case studies that the World Bank and Responsible Aquaculture Foundation (RAF) undertook to better understand disease. The groups studied infectious salmon anemia (ISA) in Chile, early mortality syndrome (EMS) in Vietnam and whitespot disease in Mozambique and Madagascar.
They found some preventable "lapses" include "blind pursuit of growth," inadequate biosecurity and lack of surveillance.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, March 5, 9:30am MST
Soybean industry values Latin America
US Soybean Export Council's John Wray, a Kansas soybean producer, said his industry "values this Latin American market."
And they're putting their money where their mouth is: The Kansas soybean industry, which farms about 3.5 million metric tons a year -- has invested $300,000 in Latin American aquaculture projects.
--Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, March 5, 9am MST
'Why is this industry stuck?'
US Soybean Export Council's (USSEC) Francisco de la Torre asked a blunt question during the opening of the third annual Aquaculture Investment Workshop in sunny La Paz.
"Why is this industry stuck?" he asked the gathered audience, filled with aquaculture industry insiders and potential investors. "The buyers are interested, the markets are ready [yet] you all have some kind of operation that is stuck, that hasn't grown. Why?"
De la Torre said the industry must share the information it has collected with new investors and farmers.
"We can't say 'Why am I going to share what I've learned in 15 years to someone new?'" he continued. "We need critical mass. Then we'll be taken seriously."
--Avani Nadkarni
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*Blog entries marked with an asterisk note that the speaker was giving the presentation in Spanish and quotes are translated through an interpreter.
