A joint venture between aquaculture feed company, Skretting, and Mumbai-based West Coast Group is supporting India’s growing need for sustainable shrimp and fish feeds, says Skretting India’s general manager, Puneet Pokhriyal.
India is the world’s leading shrimp exporter and home to an ambitious fishing farming sector. In June 2018, Skretting formed a partnership with West Coast Group, the country’s eighth largest exporter of shrimp.
Mr Pokhriyal explained the reasoning behind the venture. “India’s shrimp production has grown so rapidly over such a short period of time that some producers have been setting up their own feed plants.
“This was not a direction that West Coast wanted to take; it felt that the competency and technological knowhow required to expand production properly required a feed partner with a proven track record,” he said.
At the heart of the joint venture is a new feed production facility currently under construction in Surat in Gujarat state. Opening in early 2020, it will supply products and support to aquaculture farms along the west coast, providing access to around 10% of the country’s shrimp production and 8% of its total inland fishing farming output.
Initially the plant will have a feed production capacity of 50,000 tonnes per year, rising to 120,000 if expansion plans go ahead.
