The new facilities primarily will be used for trials with Atlantic Salmon, Rainbow Trout and Coho Salmon (Photo Credit: BioMar)

BioMar Invests in New Large Feed Trial Unit in Chile

Paddy Campbell, Global R&D Director in the BioMar Group, tells that the new unit will consist of 148 tanks divided on three different recirculation systems. The Feed Trial Unit (FTU) will be the largest of its kind in Chile and it will provide a substantial increase in the trial capacity available to BioMar’s Global Research & Development Organization.

"The capability to perform significant amounts of feed trials is becoming more and more decisive for feed manufacturers. The days when fish feed consisted of a handful of different ingredients are gone. With the volatile raw material markets and an increasing amount of new raw material types - e.g. protein concentrates - becoming available, feed suppliers have to be able to integrate new ingredients in the feed recipes fast, and with proper documentation of feed performance, flesh quality and fish health", says Paddy Campbell.

BioMar fish feed types cover the full life cycle of the fish including larvae feed, fry feed, smolt feed, grower feed, and brood stock feed

The new FTU will enable BioMar to perform simultaneous trials with both fresh and sea water in three separate closed systems with control of environmental factors such as water temperature, oxygen levels, salinity, and photoperiod.

Paddy Campbell tells that the facilities primarily will be used for trials with Atlantic Salmon, Rainbow Trout and Coho Salmon. "We can perform tests with first feeding fry to harvest size, and the facility will include a small hatchery to secure that we have a steady supply of disease free eggs".

Some of the primary focus areas of the Feed Trial Unit will be the further development and refinement of BioMar’s YTELSE Performance Concept and new types of SMART Feed as well as to investigate the link between nutrition and fish health.

Fish fed with BioMar feed

"With the new unit we gain a greater flexibility. We will have a better possibility to perform precise benchmark trials for different diets and to evaluate their biological and economic performance for our customers", he says.

The Feed Trial Unit in Pargua will also be used for the development and testing of new diets for recirculation systems such as BioMar’s ORBIT Concept.

Paddy Campbell explains that recirculation systems require a much more precise formulation of the feed compared to traditional farming systems; the reason is that the feed used in recirculation systems at the same time must give optimal growth and not hinder optimal bio-filter performance. This creates particular challenges when the recipe composition changes fast and it makes trial capacity and very accurate measuring methods essential.

The announcement of the new Feed Trial Unit comes shortly after the opening of a BioMar Feed Trial Unit in Costa Rica targeted at feed development for warm water fish species, in particular tilapia and shrimp. With the new facility in Chile, BioMar will operate a total of six trial stations in Europe and Latin America, including both land based and marine facilities and covering all growing conditions from tropical to subarctic.

Paddy Campbell underlines that the new Feed Trial Unit should not be seen as a Chilean unit. - It will form an integrated part of our global research and development structure and it will benefit all customers globally as the additional capacity and the flexible closed system will allow us to speed up trial sequences and our product development process.

Worldwide the BioMar Group supplies feed to around 60 countries and to more than 25 different fish species

About BioMar Group

The BioMar Group is one of the leading suppliers of high performance fish feed to the aquaculture industry.

The company's main business areas are feed for salmon and trout in Norway, the United Kingdom, and Chile, and feed for trout, eel, sea-bass, and sea-bream in Continental Europe.

BioMar plant in Myre

Margaret E.L. Stacey
Editor Companies and Products
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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