July 9, 2008
 
Kiotech opens China office after successful Asian trials  
 
 

UK aquafeeds company Kiotech has opened its first representative office in China.

 

The Kiotech office in Guangzhou is at the heart of the Guangdong province's fish farming industry. 

 

The opening of the office in China, which accounts for around 70 percent of all aquaculture production in the world, is a major step forward for Kiotech, said Director Mark Nicholls.

 

The office would enable the company to apply for and hold the product registrations for its range of Aquatice fish feeding attractants.

 

Kiotech will use this facility to manage new product development through laboratory and commercial farm trials, Nicholls said.

 

Kiotech is currently involved in commercial trial and development programmes in Thailand and China in close association with the Regional Government Fisheries Institute and with UK government agency CEFAS (Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science).

 

The programme has demonstrated the efficacy of Aquatice for both adult and juvenile tilapia in Guangdong fish farms as well as for white shrimp and most recently for catfish in trials both conducted in Thailand.  

 

The company said initial trials with tilapia conducted in Zhouhai, Southern China over a six month period, produced a 17-percent increase in the average weight of the Tilapia compared to the control pond.

 

The fish also reached marketable size three weeks earlier than the control pond. 

 

In the white shrimp trial conducted in south east Thailand, the trial lasted three months and the shrimp in ponds treated with the Aquatice attractant had a higher growth rate of 0.11g/day as compared to the control group at 0.08g/day. The average weight of the shrimp was 30 percent larger than shrimp in the control group and the trials concluded that the attractants promoted significantly faster growth in shrimp and that less feed was required.

 

For catfish, a 7-month, eight-pond trial conducted in Southern Thailand on Aquatice treated ponds delivered double the number of large catfish.

 

The trials also demonstrated crucial environmental benefits with significantly improved water quality in the Aquatice treated ponds, said Kiotech's Mark Nicholls.

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