Yuchi Chen, a vice president with the Guangdong Evergreen Group, said during Seafood Expo Asia 2018 that the future of the seafood industry depends on aquaculture and reliable sources of alternative feed.
Speaking both during a presentation and to SeafoodSource directly, Chen gave a brief overview of some of Evergreen’s larger projects, including the Ghalyoun Pond Project, a massive undertaking in northern Egypt performed in agreement with Egypt’s National Company for Fishery and Aquaculture. Throughout, he asserted that aquaculture will be essential to the future sustainability of the oceans.
“Aquaculture is required to make sure that the ocean is still sustainable,” Chen said. “Farming is the way to go, because the population is getting too big, there’s not enough in the ocean.”
Chen, who grew up in the business, said the challenge he’s most focused on is finding an alternative replacement for fish meal and fish oil based feed.
“In China, we produce a lot of feed, but most of our raw material, is imported from America. Elsewhere,” he said. “I think the most important part is developing a replacement for the fishmeal, for the protein.”
The barrier, he said, is making a fishmeal replacement financially feasible.
“The most economical choice right now, is still using animal protein,” he said.
Evergreen, he said, has been researching several avenues to create a sustainable fish-meal feed alternative, from plant-based products to insects.
“The cost has already been down a lot,” Chen said.
Keeping the cost low is important so that fish farmers can afford to buy the feed without personal risk, he added. “People who invest in farming, want to make a profit.”
