Aquaculture Europe 2015 – Skretting
Extruded catfi sh feed becomes the
standard in Nigeria Launch of new line overcomes bottleneck of expensive imported products and makes use of local ingredients
BY DR ARJEN ROEM, TECHNICAL MANAGER, SKRETTING AFRICA N
igeria is Africa’s largest economy and its second largest fi sh producer aft er Egypt. Nigeria produces more than 150,000 tonnes of catf ish (Clarias gariepinus) an-
nually and aquaculture producti on is growing by fi ve to 10 per cent per year. So it is not a coincidence that Skretti ng Nigeria celebrates the offi cial initi ati on of its new extruder line in Ibadan this September. How did it all begin?
History
For Skretti ng the story began in the 1990s when pioneers such as John van Dooren and Hans Vink developed catf ish feeds for the Dutch market. There, the African catf ish was reared intensively using recirculati ng aqua- culture systems (RAS) requiring high quality, nutrient and energy-dense diets. Earlier,
Wageningen University had identi fi ed African catf ish as an aquaculture candidate and led the way in RAS
technology and catf ish nutriti on. These high performance fl oati ng catf ish diets caught the interest of Durante Fish Industries in Nigeria. Hans Vink, now commercial manager of Skret- ti ng Africa, said: ‘Durante began fi sh farming more than 15 years ago but real success came aft er receiving advice from Dutch catf ish farm- er Willy Fleuren (Fleuren & Nooijen). In 2006 he invited Ade Alakija, the driving force behind Durante, to the Netherlands. Alekija was keen to fi nd a professional feed supplier and arrived in my offi ce for a brief visit. He left three hours later and a strong connecti on had been formed. Since then we have regularly shipped feeds from France. It grew from 500 tonnes in the fi rst year to 4,000 in 2009. Sadly enough, Ade Alakija died that year in a tragic accident. That stunned the business for a while, and I felt the loss of a good friend.’ However, with the direct support of Willy Fleuren, Durante overcame this loss and conti nued to grow its business to supply feed, equipment, advice and, with its own hatchery, cat- fi sh fry. Now it has two farms: an RAS grow-out facility next to the hatch- ery and a much larger pond farm. Between them they produce more than 1,000 tonnes of fi sh. Durante is now recognised as a catf ish industry leader in Nigeria.
uipmen
Feed performance Floati ng extruded catf ish feed is su- perior to sinking feeds or home-made mixings both in nutriti onal balance and physical quality. Superior, the most pop- ular catf ish grower brand, contains 45 per cent protein and 14 per cent lipids. Number one advantage is that fl oati ng aids fi sh farmers in feeding-to-appeti te in pond systems. Both underfeeding and overfeeding can be avoided by follow- ing the surface response of the fi sh. The extrusion produces strong pellets reducing the risk of dust and breakage
er br ein and 14 p er one adv pond an be a cing the risk of dus 54 br
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com nderf ing and
which leads to uneaten feed and water pollu- ti on. All these aspects contribute directly or indirectly to bett er feed effi ciency and catf ish can be grown from fi ngerling to market size of 1.5-2 kg in four to six months with a feed conversion rati o of 1.0-1.2.
Joint venture Last year Skretti ng and Durante set the next
logical step and entered into a joint venture in Nigeria. The idea was for this new branch, Skretti ng Nigeria, to start local producti on of extruded fi sh feed for Nigeria as well as the wider West African region. This has been realised within a year and September 18 was the offi cial initi ati on of the new extruder line in Ibadan, Oyo State. The Dutch Ambassador, John Groff en, was invited for the ceremony as well as the project initi ati ve was welcomed by the Dutch government. Skretti ng Nigeria is managed by Seyi Adel-
eke-Ige, who comes from Durante. She is proud of achieving this milestone with her team. ‘Feed availability was a real bott leneck in Nigeria, actually constraining aquaculture growth. Imported fi sh feed is of good quality, but the price is high due to high tariff s, freight and transport costs. With the new line (10,000 tonne capacity) we can parti ally bypass those costs. Moreover, we can make use of local feed ingredients such as maize, soya and cassava. Customers will benefi t and experience a lower cost of producti on of their catf ish.’
Future developments Nigeria has a great future for aquaculture:
water availability is good in many regions both from rivers and in the delta; the climate is fa- vourable for catf ish and other tropical species; agriculture crops like soya and cassava will expand and their by-products can be used as feedstuff s (soybean meal, cassava peels); gov- ernment policy is sti mulati ng aquaculture and parti ally banning imports of frozen fi sh; fi nally, there is a large domesti c market with close to
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