January 4, 2010

Malaysia develops new marine fish feed alternative

Malaysian researchers have developed a cost-effective and eco-friendly feed for marine fish farming.

According to the researchers, the main aim in the feed development research is to develop feed that ensures sustainable supply, environment-friendly and are cost-effective alternative to diets comprise prey fish.

Among Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia''s seafood demand has always been high and continues to increase, outstripping the supply from capture fisheries.

With a coastline of nearly 5,000km, enormous amount of freshwater resources and favourable climatic conditions, it is not difficult to meet the demand through fish farming and even to produce some extra for export.

For these reasons, aquaculture has emerged as a topic of national priority but its sustainable development faces challenges.

It is heavily dependent on the external provision of dietary feed inputs, either in the form of industrially pelleted aquafeeds or farm-made aquafeed.

"The gap between supply and demand should be bridged through aquaculture," said Rossita Shapawi from Universiti Malaysia Sabah''s (UMS) Borneo Marine Research Institute.

Rossita said in Malaysia, the estimated pelleted feed requirement by the year 2010 is 690,000 tonnes which includes 165,000 tonnes for marine fish.

"Out of the total amount of feed required, only 100,000 tonnes are produced locally and the balance imported," she said.

"Marine fish farming is still heavily dependent on fish-based feed for feeding the cultured fish. These feed is not only expensive but also associated with ecological and environmental issues," she said.

Therefore, the use of feed which can cut cost and lessen the pressure on wild fish stock will help provide sustainability and reduce carbon footprint of aquaculture.

Consistent with these aims, the Borneo Marine Research Institute of UMS has successfully developed prototype marine fish feed that can cut cost, lessen the dependency on fish-based feed and promote sustainability, and reduce the carbon footprint of aquaculture.

The prototype feed was developed using a special blend of alternative ingredients to the conventional fish meal and fish oil, recording higher growth rates, excellent survival rates and better feed conversion ratios when compared to the currently used fish-based feed.

In this context, UMS has tied up with FQ FeedMill Sdn Bhd, a local feed company involved in the business of processing, manufacturing, importing and exporting of all kinds of animal food products.