OMC Asia 2018 call for papers released: Huge potential for offshore operations in Southeast Asia

Asia in general produces 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 if marine fish production in this region is characterised by near shore, small scale cages with rather varied success rates.

The need for increasing the intensity and improving the approach of marine fish production per m² in Southeast Asian waters was voiced by the FAO chairman at the 2016 OMC Europe Conference. Marine fish production in Southeast Asia has huge potential due to a regional preference for seafood, declining wild captures and a desire to further develop seafood export markets. The regional industry is looking to adopt different approaches, 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 1MMT by 2030.

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.

Following input from the Conference Advisory Board, the call for papers for next year’s event has been released and companies, organisations and individuals are invited to put forward abstracts in the following categories:

• Moving from less efficient “nearshore” production approaches to higher energy offshore/industrial approaches – success stories
• Zoning, licensing and security for offshore operations – service providers and linkages to regional and national governments
• Development of large scale hatcheries for production of large quantities of high quality fingerlings, including breeding advances and technology
• Netting the right offshore technology – cages, netting, monitoring systems for health and harvesting
• Maximising the efficiency of your operation – need for high quality feeds and targeted nutrition
• Securing financial support for offshore ventures and joint venture approaches – investment case studies
• Marketing – identifying/targeting species and markets before production including requirements for standards and certifications

Abstracts using case and “real life” studies will be given precedence.

Abstracts should be no more than 200 words and should be sent, with a biography of the speaker, headshot photo and logo, to jgwynn@mercatormedia.com by 10th January 2018 at the latest.

If you are interested to attend, speak or take part in this event as a sponsor, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our events team on +44 1329 825335 or email conferences@offshoremariculture.com.