Organic acids in aquaculture discussed at at Addcon’s 1st international Acidifier Summit
The ever growing aquaculture industry in Asia has started to look for alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters. Discussing the use of organic acids in aquaculture at Addcon’s 1st international Acidifier Summit. March 9th 2011, Prof. Wing-Keong Ng, Universiti Sains, Malaysia said there is plenty of evidence that organic acids work in poultry and swine diets, but there is much less data about aquaculture.
“We did a study in Tilapia using various blends of organic acids and tested it against a negative control and a positive control. The positive control was Addcon´s potassium di formate which seems to have the most consistent and reliable data. What we found was that organic acids can have a very positive effect on health and growth of Tilapia. All tests have shown, that potassium formate was superior to other blends of various acids” concluded Prof. Ng.
“We have entered again a time when prices of feed ingredients are rising steeply on a daily basis. Inflation is driven by agflation. Higher demand for feed ingredients is driven by higher demand for animal protein due to a rising world population with higher disposable income, competition for feed by the biofuel industry and last but not least by investment funds who are stating that “Agriculture commodities are in a long-term bull market, and definitely have a place in one's portfolios,” said Bernd Kochannek, CEO and owner of the Germany based Addcon Group of companies.
“As such, the feed industry is still in competition with its old rivals but at the same time the feed industry will have to make sure, that it is getting its share of high quality raw material for its customers.” According to Kochannek, neither the feed, nor the bio-energy industry can continue to loose precious nutrients due to microbial and fungal spoilage. Preserving raw material will be crucial in order to meet tomorrow´s demand.
“Customers become more and more sensitive on safety and ethical issues” Mr. Kochannek continued. “With increasing disposable income, parents are keen to feed their kids good and high quality food. High quality is no longer determined by the nutritive value of a meal only, but food safety has become a major concern globally. Whether justified or not, the ban of antibiotics in feed in Europe is being followed by other countries in Asia too. Also this trend will be a challenge for the industry to meet,” continued Mr. Kochannek. Addcon´s Green Chemistry philosophy can help the industry to meet this demand. The Addcon´s product portfolio will help to preserve the nutritive value of raw material, it will guarantee feed safety and the products will help to maximize the utilization of nutrients.
182 invited industry experts from 22 countries attended the Summit
The proceedings of the Summit “Standards for acidifiers”, which have been edited by Dr. Christian Lückstädt are available from Nottingham University Press or from Addcon directly. For more information on the various presentations and on the summit in general, Addcon can be contacted at info@addcon.com.
