The high capital expenditure and energy consumption of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) is hampering uptake of the fish-farming technology in many emerging markets.
BioMar Group Global Marketing Director Katherine Bryar told SeafoodSource that RAS technology remains expensive venture that also requires advanced knowledge of complex systems for it to be viable. The significant upfront costs and cutting-edge nature of much of the technology makes it a poor choice for most developing markets like those in Africa, she told SeafoodSource. Additionally, lack of access to investment capital is another obstacle Africa’s aquaculture industry must overcome.
“[RAS] is very much in the innovation phase, even in some of the most advanced countries such as Norway, Scotland, and the U.S.,” she said.
Bryar said high upfront investment requirements create too large of a debt burden, forcing them to raise prices or hit ambitious production targets. Bryar said RAS systems also require large amounts of energy, which can often make them infeasible in developing countries.
“RAS technology does not only pose an innovation challenge, but it is also a high-cost venture and I’m not sure whether the final product output in the entire production chain can absorb that high capital expenditure cost, as it may take several years for the venture to become profitable,” Bryar said.
The best option for emerging aquaculture markets such as Africa, she said, “is to get involved in some sort of conventional fish farming, especially in the marine environment, and really gain necessary knowledge as the aquaculture market grows – because when one talks of RAS you are really talking of a technology that is still far above reach of many of these markets.”
While RAS farms must find a global audience for their high-cost products, traditional aquaculture operations can keep costs low enough they can keep their products priced low enough for widespread local market acceptance, Bryar said.
“From my perspective, we can’t continue seeing land as the only place for fish farming," she said. "There is a place to think of, which is 71 percent of the planet, the ocean – and our waterways of course – and I very much believe that we urgently need to plan our ocean space or our marine space just like we plan our open land space."
Currently, RAS systems seem best implemented for the hatchery phase of most aquaculture operations, a shift many of the largest aquaculture firms in the world, like Mowi and Grieg Seafood, have adopted.
“Where RAS has been most successful is where the fish is made to stay longer on land for it to be larger in size and weight before it is put in the ocean,” she said. “This makes the fish more robust for the older it is, the more robust it will be and more likely to survive in a good way by the time it goes out to sea.”
Bryar said for those investigating the viability of an RAS system in Africa, it made sense to take a stage-based approach.
“[Start with RAS] through hatchery, then building good farming environment in marine areas and looking at where your market opportunities are, whether it would be feeding Africa or producing for the global export market," she said.
Bryar said BioMar remains supportive of RAS farming and has noted the sector's growth. It has responded by formulating and manufacturing a new feed called Orbit she said can maximize the performance of land-based systems.
“When dealing with RAS technology you feed the fish and, in a sense, the biofilter,” Bryar said. “In a land-based system the fish feces drops into the RAS and goes through the filtration and gets filtered out. But the biofilter can get clogged if these feces is not coming out in a good way.”
Ensuring the fish feces is the right consistency is the best way to keep RAS biofilters working efficiently, Bryar said, and crafting a diet that allows for fish feces to remain intact longer and not dissolve in water was one of BioMar’s main goals.
“Once the fish poop dissolves in the water, it makes the water murky and much difficult to clean but if the feces is kept together, it can be cracked by the biofilter ensure the water is kept in a good way,” Bryar said. “Any RAS system that is dealing with a biofilter, which is what RAS is, needs to take care of the biofilter.”
Photo courtesy of Fed By Blue
