Novus announces strong aquaculture expansion strategy in South East Asia
During Victam Asia and FIAAP, Novus International Inc. (St Louis, Missouri, USA) detailed its strategic plan of expansion in South East Asia and organized a signing ceremony during the shows in Bangkok, Thailand.
The animal health and nutrition firm, represented by Thad Simons, president and CEO of Novus international, agreed to construct an aqua research facility on Vietnam’s Nong Lam University campus, formally known as the University of Agriculture and Forestry (NLU). The agreement signed on Thursday, March 6, 2008, provides Novus with 1,000 square meters of land in this campus, located at Linh Truang Ward, Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City, south of Vietnam.
At the same ceremony, Novus also signed a joint research agreement with Bombay Veterinary College, India. This agreement will enable three veterinary students to complete master thesis for their MSc Degrees; they will conduct a two-year research project on organic trace minerals in poultry production.
Construction on the half-million dollar research facility in Vietnam is expected to be complete in the summer of 2008. The facility will include a fish hatchery with re-circulating tanks for Pangasius Basa catfish, tilapia and shrimp, a water process laboratory, feed processing laboratory and general laboratory with microbiology equipment and glass aquaria.
Founded in 1955, Nong Lam University’s current student body consists of 20,000 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students in 37 fields of study. Undergraduate aquatic degrees are offered in Aquaculture, Aquatic Products Processing and Aquatic Animal Health Management. Masters and PhD programs are also offered in Aquaculture, explained Dr. Farshad Shishehchian, Novus’ newly appointed Global Aqua Manager. (see story).
From nearly nothing in the sixties, aquaculture production in Vietnam began to boom in the mid nineties and rose to 1.23 millions tonnes (mt) in 2005, according to FAO, becoming the 6th placed producer, behind China (41 mt), India (2.4 mt), Philippines (1.7 mt), Indonesia (1.4 mt) and Japan (1.26 mt). Vietnam aquaculture performed paticularly well in value, with 2.1% in volume, its global value share is higher, at 3.5%.
"Through our innovative research and development, we have realized the challenges facing the aquaculture industry and have found substantial opportunities to serve the fast growing aquaculture market," said Shishehchian.
"We provide products, services, and business solutions to help solve the industry’s present and future issues by being accountable to current and future social, economic, environmental conditions, a balance of ecosystem, and the needs of the aquaculture industry. We are responsible for the community at large and will do our best to support farmers to handle threats in local and export markets by offering right products and services for the market. We have offered activities to help the industry grow in the proper directions by consolidating expertise of well-known people in the industry", he said.
Novus will continue the development of aqua products and programs based on sound research conducted at the new facility. It is anticipated that these new products and programs will be similar in nature to MERAMet Ca Plus Catfish and MERA Met Plus, which were developed to improve nutrition, quality, disease prevention and overall health in catfish while reducing the usage of fishmeal. Recognizing Korea as one of the top 10 feed producers in the world, Novus will launch its MERA line of product to serve feed mill customers at World Aquaculture 2008 in Busan.
