Novel approaches for China’s aquafeed sector are slow to be embraced by authorities here. That’s clearly been the experience of French-based yeast specialist Lesaffre which has waited over a year for the paperwork to be allowed sell its yeast-based aquafeed solutions in the Chinese market.
According to head of China operations Philippe Tacon: “The licenses are still pending, some because of us not getting the right certificates, some because the ministry of agriculture here is very slow.”
Already active in yeast extraction industries across China, Lesaffre has in recent years refocused its interest on aquaculture, given the surge in production in Asia, explains Tacon. The firm is targeting its yeast extracts at a handful of large firms in the Chinese aquafeed market. Yeast can stimulate immune system and enhance immunity in aquaculture, improving fish meat yields and growing times.
Chinese clients will appreciate the consistency of the firm’s live yeast product, believes Tacon. Local Chinese peer Angel Yeast Company, headquarted in Hubei province, is also producing angel yeast for the aquaculture sector. Despite competition Tacon believes the market here is “big enough” for everyone. Tacon believes Lesaffre’s product will be embraced by the higher-margin side of the marine fish business.
“At RMB 30 (USD 4.81, EUR 3.75) to RMB 40 (USD 6.42, EUR 5) per kilo you’d feed it to bass or grouper,” explains Tacon. “It would be expensive for tilapia and carp feed but these species feed rather efficiently already anyway.”
China also has potential as a manufacturing base, for export to the region, he believes. Chinese aquafeed companies, invariably offshoots of big pig feed companies, remain “very reliant on soybean until a new protein source comes,” explains Tacon. “The volumes of soybean used are still big, so the alternative source would have to match these volumes, and it is not likely very soon.”
But prices look set to drop for single cell proteins like algae and yeast, which are comparatively expensive for aquafeed use.
“More and more companies are interested in producing algae for the aquafeed market,” Tacon said. “When production costs will decrease, prices should increase. Brewer’s inactive yeast is not very expensive, in China it sells for RMB 4,000 (USD 642, EUR 501) to RMB 5,000 (USD 802, EUR 626) per ton. Yeast prices are quite stable for the moment.”
Former head of Alltech’s China aquafeed business, Jenny Huai, told SeafoodSource there’s demand for Alltech’s Bioplex organic trace minerals, The products are used by local feed companies Tongwei as well as Haid, which is currently evaluating Alltech’s organic aqua feed products. Alltech focuses on shrimp and marine fish in China. Demand from producers of river fish is very limited because these are too cost sensitive, Huai said.
“It would not be realistic to sell to tilapia fish farms — they don’t want to pay the prices,” Huai said.
Chinese aquaculture producers are currently increasing their sourcing of feed. But ultimately in the future they will have to decrease “because the production of fish meal is stable or decreasing, and if the volume of aquafeed increases, they will need to reduce the percentage in their meal,” Tacon said. “Yeast can play some part in replacing fish meal, but not totally. Again, it has to do with availability of the product and the price of protein in the alternative source.”
Speaking to the author on a visit to Beijing, Professor Simon Davies at the UK’s Plymouth University said the industry needs to focus on biological and naturally available ingredients in order to reduce feed use and improve fish conditioning: 30 percent of diets for cod can be replaced with yeast extracted from fermentation of wheat in biofuels. Yeast from distilled dried grain and biofuels gives 40 percent replacement of fishmeal protein.
This, Davies said, protects efficiency and helps improve weight gain. “The future is an advanced molecular approach,” said Davies, whose school has been researching carp protein and amino acids. Davies, who has worked with aqua feed producers Alltech and Biomin, added that DNA profiling of fish has allowed reduction of the use of fishmeal in salmon. Now, the research is being applied to tilapia, rainbow trout and carp.
China’s fish feed market is estimated 8.6 million metric tons (MT) and growing at 10 percent per year. China’s shrimp feed sector is dominated by local firms Yue Hai, Evergreen, Haid and Tongwei. International brands tapping the market by installing local milling capacity include Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand and Skretting, the Nutreco aquafeed business which bought shrimp feed mill Shihai Company, for EUR 40 million (USD 51.3 million). Shihai supplies 200,000 MT of fish and shrimp feed. Based in Guangdong province, Shihai holds approximately 5 percent of the high end fish feed market in the south of China and has shown an annual growth rate of approximately 23 percent during the last five years.
Also competing for market share, Uni-President, a Taiwanese conglomerate with a shrimp/eel feed mill in Zhongshan, also in Guangdong province producing 10,000 MT of marine shrimp feed a year. The firm has avoided the high-volume, low-margin, carp-feed market, a segment shared by local feed giants Haid, Tongwei and New Hope. A smaller Uni-President feed mill in Shanghai supplies farmers of shrimp, crab, fish and frogs. The mortality rate for fish is lower than shrimp. Uni-President has focused on Guangdong (shrimp) and the island province of Hainan (a key tilapia production center).
