HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM — With significant growth in aquafeed production in the Asia Pacific, the US Grains Council (USGC) is increasing its strategic programming in the region to improve the use of coarse grains and co-products.

Aquafeed production in the region grew 3% to 36.5 million tonnes in 2021, but coarse grains and co-product usage is still low.

In June, the USGC’s Southeast Asia and Oceania (SEA&O) team conducted an aquaculture roadshow, making stops in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Bangkok, Thailand and Jakarta, Indonesia.

At each of the events, presentation topics included an outlook for global shrimp aquaculture and its challenges; aquafeed extrusion techniques; advances in shrimp and tilapia aquaculture systems; and a review of fish and shrimp nutrition and opportunities for distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS).

“A significant part of our strategy is to help increase the overall health of the aquaculture industry by disseminating information about management, disease mitigation and other tools for industry resiliency,” said Caleb Wurth, USGC SEA&O regional director. “It’s a simple calculation — more mouths translate into more demand for US coarse grain products.”

As part of the roadshow, the group of speakers and USGC staff visited tilapia farms in Thailand to discuss on-farm constraints and opportunities.

“Hearing directly from the farmer is critical to the formation of good aquaculture strategy,” Wurth said. “Our products add value, but we need to fully understand what the issues are on the ground to help.”

The SEA&O office continues to partner with research universities and organizations, including the Petambak Muda Indonesia (Young Shrimp Farmers Association) and World Aquaculture Society, to build the recognition of coarse grain product use in aquaculture while it conducts additional research on the performance of DDGS in shrimp and tilapia diets.