Thailand’s shrimp Project chooses XpertSea as aquaculture data platform
Roel Schoenmaker Another success for Aquaculture without Frontiers
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ith great pleasure I look back at VIV Asia 2019, the largest international trade show from Feed to Food in Asia that took place last March 1315th in Bangkok, Thailand. This booming exhibition - which reaches its visitor public far beyond South East Asia - provides a major platform offering opportunities to professionals in the animal protein industry. This includes aquaculture. Specifically, the production of fish and shrimp. For fish farmers, the Aquatic Pavilion at VIV Asia and, in general, the show floor already displays all innovations in the field of pharmaceuticals and feed ingredients and additives for fish and shrimp production. My plans for the future editions of VIV Asia are set to create additional space for displaying fish farming equipment such as aerators, nets, rubber ponds, recirculation systems, filters and pumps and more. All for building and managing modern aquaculture farms. My personal journey in the field of aquaculture has only been a little over three years. In this relatively short period, I have already seen entrepreneurs with great passion for creating sustainable innovations for this world. Their enthusiasm strengthens my commitment to bring the aquaculture sector further within VIV. It is satisfying to see what was already achieved in 2019 at VIV Asia with the third edition of Aquatic Asia. The conference ‘Aquatic Asia 2019’ was organised on the second day of VIV Asia thanks to a synergetic cooperation between VIV worldwide, International Aquafeed and Fish Farming Technology magazine and Progressus. Presenting a one-day conference programme featuring international experts in shrimpfarming nutrition and technology addressing quality, safety, the environment and new technologies. This event brought ten speakers - from academia and industry - together with a highly interested audience of over one hundred people to discuss the science, technology and commercial aspects of shrimp farming. The speakers presented a wide range of developments in this rapidly growing field. All speakers and organisers involved in the Aquatic Asia conference, already at its third edition in Bangkok, were proud to support the Aquaculture Without Frontiers (AwF) foundation. The AwF Charity promotes and facilitates responsible and sustainable aquaculture, especially to help create jobs in under-developed markets. By supporting this charitable organisation, the aim is to alleviate poverty by improving livelihoods in these developing countries. In more detail, the charity has helped establish aquaculture training courses around the world, including places such as Thailand. AwF has provided small loans to help fish farmers in Nigeria. Projects are also continually taking place and the funds - generated by Aquatic conferences at VIV events around the globe - will help support ongoing projects, such as a fish disease management project in the Caribbean as well as providing students with oneyear loans to help further their studies in aquaculture at the Taiwan Ocean University. We are happy that this edition of the Aquatic Asia helped to raise 858 euros for the charity. The next edition of Aquatic Asia conference will be held during VIV Health & Nutrition Asia 2020 on January 16th at Bitec in Bangkok, followed by the Aquatic MEA conference during VIV MEA 2020 on March 10th in Abu Dhabi. On behalf of the organisation I look forward to welcoming you there.
Roel Schoenmaker is Senior Account Manager at VIV Worldwide: The business network linking professionals from Feed to Food. Within VIV, Roel is responsible for the development of the aquaculture programme at the VIV series of tradeshows. Academically, Roel holds a MSc in International Technology Management from the University of Groningen. 10 | June 2019 - International Aquafeed
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mproved collection and sharing of shrimp data using XpertSea technology aims to reduce the impact of diseases, a major threat to the sustainability of shrimp production and a major economic cost with billions of dollars in lost revenue and growth opportunities Thailand’s Shrimp Health Resources Improvement project (SHRImp), managed by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) in collaboration with IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, has chosen XpertSea to deploy a collaborative farm solution to help manage production risks at multiple shrimp farms in Thailand. The project will use XpertSea’s industry-leading aquaculture management platform, the only commercially available hardware/ software solution that automatically captures shrimp size and weight using artificial intelligence and computer vision. The program objective is to develop data tools and interfaces that will enable farmers and industry managers to reduce disease outbreaks at individual farms and at the area-level through improved farm management and coordinated action. “Disease is the major threat to the sustainability of shrimp production and a major economic cost,” said AntonImmink, Aquaculture Program Director at the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership. “Past experience has shown how devastating the impact of disease outbreaks can be to the industry, costing billions of dollars in lost revenue and growth opportunities. XpertSea is the perfect partner to provide the tools and advice that will help farmers and link with other tools to help the industry as a whole reduce the potential impact of disease outbreaks, through systems built on improved data collected from, and used by, farms and management agencies.”