BioMar Group has opened an aquaculture research center in Patagonia, with plans to use the facility to develop innovative projects relation to fish nutrition and health.
The new Aquaculture Technology Centre Patagonia (ATC Patagonia) is located in Lenca, Chile. It arose out of an agreement the company signed in October 2016 to buy a share in a facility jointly owned with Aqualnnovo and develop it into a center for aquaculture research and development. BioMar claims it will be the “most complete and modern aquaculture research center in the Southern Hemisphere.”
“We have chosen to invest in this research facility because we are convinced that it is perfectly suited to bring many advances in solving the challenges faced by the aquaculture industry,” BioMar Global Director of R&D Håvard Jørgensen said. “ATC Patagonia will reduce the take-to-market time, making us more flexible and robust.”
BioMar, which is owned by Danish industrial group Schouw & Co., has feed factories in 10 countries on five continents, and supplies feed for more than 45 different species being raised in over 80 countries.
“We look forward to innovating aquaculture and aquaculture feeds by utilizing the research resources that are available, in Chile as well as elsewhere in the world,” Jørgensen said. “Our agenda for 2017 is made up of research related to nutrition for fresh water and sea-water species, focusing on raw material knowledge, feed model building and health aspects, mainly on Salmonid Rickettsial Septicaemia (SRS), which has caused significant losses to the salmon farming sector.”
