ECOshrimp is collaborating with Zemach Feed Mill in order to develop a dedicated shrimp food blend for super-intensive shrimp cultivation in a closed Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) system. The new blend will be based on an existing Zemach blend which provides a healthy shrimp diet. ECOshrimp will define the parameters of the collaboration, collecting and monitoring data at its growing facilities.
“The new collaboration is another step in positioning Zemach, which is already the largest food supplier in Israel for fish farming, as a leading company in the world of aquaculture in general,” said Dr. Shlomo Pleban, R&D manager of Zemach Feed Mill. “The food blend will be carefully designed by the R&D department and in collaboration with our nutrition department to suit the intensive ECOshrimp growing system at all stages of the shrimp life cycle, meeting the high standards required to grow fresh and healthy produce, without the use of antibiotics and chemicals.”
Global shrimp production currently weighs in at around 5 million tons per year, with a market value of $30 billion. Typically, production is carried out in large shallow pools in areas along beaches in South America and South Asia; locations that may require distant shipping in order to haul their stock to areas where it is most in demand, such as North America, Europe and Japan, which import over 80% of their consumption.
ECOshrimp aims to reinvent the shrimp-growing industry by means of a closed growing system. “The closed system developed by ECOshrimp has significant environmental, health and economic benefits over traditional cultivation, which is currently carried out in shallow pools near the sea, utilizing large areas of great ecological importance, such as mangrove forests,” says Dr. Eran Hadas, CTO of ECOshrimp. “In recent years, whole crop cycles have been destroyed after ponds have been infected with disease. To prevent these effects, most growers use chemicals and antibiotics that can severely affect product quality, with residues potentially reaching the final consumer.”
“ECOshrimp’s RAS technology is an innovative system that is efficiently and economically controlled and does not depend on proximity to a water source or climatic conditions,” added Hadas. “It enables shrimp to be fed artificially and in a controlled manner, without the use of chemicals and antibiotics, until they reach a market weight of up to 25 gr. within 15 weeks uniform growth – and all this close to market.”
