Salmon feeding. (Photo: Skretting)

NZKS mostly uses poultry oil in its salmon feed

NEW ZEALAND
Monday, September 17, 2012, 23:40 (GMT + 9)

Skretting Australia New Zealand is using poultry and freezing industry waste instead of fish oil and fishmeal in its feed pellets for farmed fish. Skretting Australia New Zealand is the company that supplies feed pellets to New Zealand King Salmon (NZKS), which is currently looking to expand its operations in the Marlborough Sounds.

More than 80 per cent of the diet of New Zealand salmon was land-based, Skretting account manager Ben Wybourne told an Environmental Protection Authority hearing in Blenheim last week.

Skretting uses blood, meat and feather meal in its feeds that it acquires as by-products of the Australian poultry, cattle, sheep and pig slaughter industries, Wybourne clarified, and noted that oil from poultry is increasingly replacing fish oil in fish feed, The Marlborough Express reports.

An authority board of inquiry will decide whether NZKS will be allowed to build nine new aquaculture farms in the Sounds. The project entails obtaining new farms in Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sounds and Port Gore in the outer Sounds, where the Marlborough District Council had decided to ban fish farming.

Wybourne pointed out that as there are no salmon diseases in New Zealand farmed salmon, antibiotics are not used in feeds for the aquaculture market and no need for lice treatments or drenches to treat internal parasites exists. However, the company did incorporate antibiotics and vaccines into feed exported for use in other countries.

And he stressed that the dried, cooked feeds made by Skretting were as unlikely to carry disease as cooked dry biscuits.

He also told the hearing the following statements:

• The chinook salmon raised in New Zealand by King Salmon needs 1.9 kg of feed to produce a kg of fish;
• King Salmon diets are 10 per cent fishmeal compared with 70 per cent in 1990;
• 3.5 tonnes of anchovy generate enough oil and meal to grow 1 ton of king salmon;
• Salmon produce more fish protein and oil than they consume;
• Fish are fed a pigment called astaxanthin to give their flesh its pink colour;
• Processed salmon fillets keep about 42 per cent of the essential fatty acids fed to the fish.

Although Skretting would benefit if the King Salmon expansion succeeded, it is possible that other competitors could tender to supply, Wybourne said.

Mark Preece, NZKS aquaculture general manager, said the firm could increase its output from about 8,750 tonnes a year to 22,000 tonnes if its application to develop nine new fish farms in the Marlborough Sounds is approved.

Related articles:

- New Zealand King Salmon pushes forward with expansion efforts
- New Zealand King Salmon faces efforts to halt its expansion

By Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

Print