The 2016 APA convention (Asia Pacific Aquaculture) took place in Surabaya from 26^th till 29^th of April, and surely was the major aquaculture exhibition in South East Asia this year, attracting close to 5,000 participants. The massive presence of Indonesian aquaculturists, including farmers, governmental staff and researchers proved the importance of the aquaculture community in Indonesia. Indonesian aquaculture grew nearly 20% in the last 5 years in hectares in production and over 50% per year in volume produced over the last 10 years.

“Attendees from all over South East Asia learned how the Indonesian aquaculture industry managed to realize this amazing growth and the conference was very well attended with participants,” said Allen Wu, Nutriad’s Regional Manager Aquaculture APAC, and Board Director of the organizing World Aquaculture Society – Asia Pacific Chapter. The International Symposium on Tilapia in Aquaculture (ISTA) was part of the program. Furthermore, a special producer program for Indonesian aquaculture producers, IndoAqua, Fita and the 12^th All Indonesian Young Koi Show were incorporated in this event.

This year Nutriad selected APA16 as its platform for organizing a number of technical seminars for its aqua distributors and customers. “These seminars provide an excellent opportunity to our central and regional aqua team as well as our partners and customers in APAC to learn about current market developments and new findings regarding the application of our functional feed additives for fish and shrimp,” stated Dr. Peter Coutteau, Nutriad Business Unit Director Aquaculture. 

The customer event, upon invitation only, featured product and trial updates presented by Nutriad’s product managers on aquaculture health and nutrition. Invited speaker Dr. Kathy Tang from the Aquaculture Pathology Laboratory of The University of Arizona, USA gave an update on emerging shrimp diseases in Asia including Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease (AHPND), Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) and White Feces Syndrome (WFS).

At the scientific WAS conference, Nutriad gave two presentations.  Alexander van Halteren, Business Development Manager Aquaculture Nutrition, talked on “Cost efficient replacement of essential Lipids (Cholesterol, n-3 Hufa and Phospholipids) in practical grow out diets for white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) using different sources of purified bile salts.”Maria Mercè Isern Subich DVM, Business Development Manager Aquaculture Health, lectured on “The effect of a gut health modulator on productivity and profitability of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromisniloticus) in cage farming.”

Nutriad is an industry leading specialist in the development, manufacture and marketing of animal and aqua feed additives worldwide. Headquartered in Belgium, Nutriad delivers products and services to over 80 countries worldwide through a network of own offices and distributors, supported by four application laboratories and five manufacturing facilities located on three continents. www.nutriad.com

                   Group Photo