The regional industry in Southeast Asia is looking to adopt different approaches, recognising the strong potential of finfish production in Southeast Asia. For example, the Singapore government has announced their plan for a 9% increase in local contribution of quality farmed fish, the Indonesian government has invested in the creation of three offshore cage demonstration sites and the Vietnamese industry is targeting a ‘modest’ increase of marine fish production to a million tonnes by 2030.
The UN has recently released data showing that global per capita fish consumption has hit a record high, passing the 20kg per year mark for the first time. The need has therefore been recognised for greater development in farming if we are to meet the needs of a growing population.
Asia in general accounts for nearly 90% of world aquaculture production, but is not well known for its aquaculture production of marine finfish. Southeast Asia in particular, has a strong potential for increased marine fish production, with long coastlines, clean waters, subtropical to tropical climate and an existing processing capacity for seafood export products. However, currently the majority of marine fish production in this region is characterised by near shore, small scale cages with rather varied success rates.
“At the last European Offshore Mariculture Conference (OMC) event in Barcelona, it was highlighted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Chairman that Asia is the developing hub in terms of quantity and potential, and it needs to intensify with more fish per cubic metre of water. It is felt that the market in Southeast Asia is now well-primed for large scale/large volume production and is an excellent location for our conference,” said Marianne Rasmussen-Coulling, Events Director at Mercator Media, organisers of the conference.
In light of this, Singapore has been chosen to host the first edition of Offshore Mariculture Asia which will take place on 15-17 May 2018 in association with the U.S. Soybean Export Council, USSEC. OMC Asia will be the perfect meeting place for those interested in learning about and investing in industrial marine fish operations. Singapore is a central location, not just for the Southeast Asian region, but also accessible for North, South and East Asian operators who are equally looking to advance. OMC is a dedicated forum to learn about the requirements to adopt in order to run successful productions like in Europe, South America and Australia.
OMC Asia will provide local attendees with the chance to learn from established operations in the countries who pioneered in this industry, such as those in the European region and allow international experts, equipment suppliers and investors the opportunity to meet the local stakeholders interested in moving to cage quality finfish production.
