Taoyuan City, Taiwan-based aquafeed and aquaculture equipment firm Grobest has entered into an exclusive partnership with Singapore-based shrimp farmer Universal Aquaculture (UniAqua) to deliver a proprietary feed specially designed for the firms recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) vannamei farms.
Founded in 2020, UniAqua operates a land-based shrimp farm applying hybrid biological recirculation system (“HBRS”) POD technology. It received an investment from Oceanus Group in September 2020. UniAqua’s six-tier system – using a combination of recirculation, biofloc, and mechanical filtration – involves farming shrimp in stacked units with juveniles at the top level and mature adults at the bottom levels.
“With a vertical indoor system of such high density, every parameter’s impact is magnified,” UniAqua CEO Jeremy Ong said in a press release. “Hence, we designed the systems to be especially modular and systematic with the intention to incorporate IoT and machine learning within our operating system to ensure scalable efficiency. A major component would be the feed that we put in the tanks – how soluble they are, how receptive our shrimps are to them, the residue left, and other aspects like taste profile. We are really excited to see how this partnership with Grobest will help to bring us closer to the optimal feed.”
In initial trials, Grobest's functional performance feeds “have outperformed competitive products by yielding healthier, tastier shrimp, and significantly better water quality,” Ong said.
Last year, Singapore announced it will pursue the goal of 30 percent domestically produced food by 2030, “which effectively reaffirms the importance of intensified production to satisfy the food demand of its growing population,” Grobest Group CEO Samson Li said.
“Grobest has always led innovation in the aquafeed industry since the introduction of our proprietary bio-tech functional performance feeds over 15 years ago. Making our farmers more successful, more productive and more profitable across all farming models is the essence of ‘The Grobest Difference’ and is why this partnership with Universal Aquaculture is an exciting next step that reaffirms our commitment to leading the industry by partnering with other leading innovators,” Li said. “The development and expansion of new farming models, such as UniAqua’s proprietary hybrid biological recirculation system, will be critical in the development of the industry over the next decade and it brings a unique set of challenges that urgently need a solution.”
London, United Kingdom-headquartered global investment firm Permira took a 50 percent stake in Grobest in 2018.
Photo courtesy of Grobest
