The Netherland.- Aquaculture R&D centre was officially opend in Vinh Long province, a province in Mekong Delta of Vietnam not long ago. This is a public private partnership project funded by the Dutch Government via its Transition Facility. The partnership involves Dutch feed firm De Heus Vietnam, consultancy firm Fresh Studio, Can Tho Univeristy and Wageningen University.
The centre will initially focus on developing knowledge of pangasious, tilapia, snakehead and shrimp feeds aiming to improve the feeding performance of these species, to maximize animal growth and limit wastage of resouces – according to Fresh Studio’s managing director Siebe van Wijk.
De Heus Vietnam has been active in Vietnam since 2008 and has been strenthening their position in Vietnam’s animal feeding markets with 7 feed factories operating in the country, from the Noth to the South. Fresh Studio began its work in the horticulture sector in Vietnam, where one of the largest supermarket chains in the world contracted it to develop direct farmer sourcing systems, he said. To ensure farmers complied with the quality standards of Fresh Studio’s client, Fresh Studio developed an extension service and an R&D and demonstration farm. “Within a period of ten years the combination of applied research, extension and cooperation with a large number of technology companies, resulted in the successful introduction of value-adding innovations to thousands of farmers.” Can Tho University is one of leading universities in Vietnam in the field of agriculture research. Can Tho and Wagenning Universities are working together in number of projects, echange of students, researches and mutual visits.
Participating in the project, these firms and knowledges institutions show their feasible ambitious that this R&D centre will develop into a key innovation centre for aquaculture feed development not only in Vietnam but also in the region through its ‘pure resarch’ on feed and will ‘provide concrete solutions for farmers on improved feed management’. For sustainable and profitable aquaculture, there is a need to reduce the feed costs which are currently too high, to improve the seed quality and also to prevent disease outbreak.
“We expect indirect savings also. From the farm side, because less feed will be used per pond, less organic matters will be released into the ponds which should limit both the pumping costs to exchange water, and treatment costs to cure diseases” (Fresh Studio).
From a market perspective, these improvements should be perceived positively, and may play a part in driving higher market prices in the long-term, it is hoped. De Heus and Fresh Studio are open for collaborations with other key players in the aquaculture sector, who want their technologies and production systems tested and further improved.
Source: Agroberichten Buitenland