Aquaculture feed company, Skretting, has developed a new grower diet aimed at providing farms with greater levels of flexibility.
By feeding their shrimp, Xpand, farmers can reduce the associated costs and impacts of farming in exposed water locations by harvesting earlier at the same size or, alternatively, by producing larger sized shrimp within their usual production schedules.
“Whether it’s bigger, more valuable products, or it’s reducing the grow-out stage to get shrimp to market faster, Xpand has the potential to be a game-changing solution for many of our customers,” said Lenaïg Richard Breivik, global product group manager for shrimp at Skretting.
“Through this heightened flexibility, farmers are now in a position to make the decisions that are best suited to their own unique operations,” she added.
Xpand is the result of four years of research and development. Built upon a thorough understanding of the digestive physiology of shrimp, this work focused on improved growth, improved nutrition and pond support.
The work confirmed that many steps are needed to optimise the digestion of the feed and its conversion into growth. While feeding shrimp with Xpand leads to a shorter feed consumption time, Skretting’s research also found that shrimp achieved faster gut transit. In addition, feed intake is increased while maintaining the feed conversion ratio, which in turn leads to improved growth of the shrimp.
Xpand is initially being launched in Vietnam, before being introduced to other important shrimp farming markets around the world.
