Denmark-based aquaculture feed company The BioMar Group has announced a new joint venture with Chinese feed producer Tongwei Co. to expand into China and other Asian markets.
Both companies plan to begin building a feed factory in China with an annual capacity of more than 100,000 metric tons, with plans to start operation in 2016. They plan to follow with three to five more factories of similar or larger scale elsewhere in China, and to expand production and sales in other Asian countries. Both companies will have a 50 percent ownership of the operation.
BioMar CEO Carlos Diaz said this is the latest step in BioMar’s expansion strategy, following new feed production operations in Costa Rica and Turkey.
"China is the world’s largest aquaculture market and Tongwei holds the leading position as a feed supplier to the aquaculture industry in China,” Diaz said. “BioMar will as a leading global supplier of specialized larval and fry diets as well as high performance grower diets and functional feeds contribute with know-how and product ranges for the fast growing production of high value fish species in China."
The new Chinese factory will produce starter and grower feeds for marine and fresh water species including sea bass, sea bream, cobia, turbot, bass, grouper, trout, sturgeon, tilapia, eel, and shrimp.
Diaz also said BioMar can contribute to producing a more environmentally-friendly operation in China.
"In this scenario with water becoming an increasingly scarce resource BioMar can contribute with a huge amount of knowledge in environmental management, reduction of emissions from aquaculture to the aquatic environment, and especially with highly specialized diets developed for intensive fish production in recirculation aquaculture systems with very limited water consumption,” Diaz said. “This knowledge will be very important in the future development of aquaculture in China as well as the rest of Asia.”
