Hosting aquaculture
conference already
paying off for isles
For Fred Lum, who breeds Japanese koi in Kaimuki, getting important fish-food information has turned out to be one of the most valuable aspects of this week's World Aquaculture Society conference.
The conference, being held at the Hawaii Convention Center, has so far attracted between 3,000 and 4,000 people.
Lum needed to know about the most effective way to feed his koi's tiny offspring.
"I was having a problem getting enough food to raise babies. The baby koi are smaller than mosquitos. So far I've been to two sessions on live-culture fish-food for fish. In both sessions, I found out why I have a problem," he said.
Ron Wiedenbach, who raises golden tilapia at his farm in Waialua, agrees with Lum about the value of the conference.
"There is so much going on in other parts of the world. It can be information overload but if you put it at a conference like this, you can pick the titles and go to the sessions that are relevant," Wiedenbach said.
The conference is also an opportunity to catch up with other industry folks.
"There are people here I know that are working on things. I can catch them and we can talk about the latest developments," Wiedenbach said.
Another 6-year-old local company at the conference, Aquafeed, provides news and information to the aqua feed industry through its site www.aquafeed.com. It is supported by advertising from the companies that supply aquaculture feed to the industry and is run by Suzy Fraser Dominy.
Before she started the company, Fraser Dominy said there was no one central clearinghouse for information specifically related to aquaculture feed.
Aqua feed was once considered merely a specialty area of the animal food industry, she said. That's all changed. Fraser Dominy said that aquaculture is the fastest growing agribusiness worldwide, driven by pressure on diminishing wild ocean stocks, declining catches, especially of some species, and huge consumer demand.
"There has been double-digit growth in the last decade so people are beginning to see that," she said.
The company now also produces a newsletter in English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese for its customers and has sales representatives in the United Kingdom, Ecuador and Scandinavia, she said.
For Fraser Dominy, the conference is an opportunity to pick up the latest information and to network.
Others from Hawaii's aquaculture industry who are attending the conference this week say it has already presented major business opportunities and yielded potential new customers.
For Brian Goldstein, president of Kona Bay Resources, and Hai Yuan, vice president of company operations, making the connection at the conference happened very quickly.
"This is the first time where the first person who walked up to our booth was the best lead," Goldstein said.
Kona Bay Resources, based at the National Energy Laboratory Hawaii Authority, north of Kona, has been producing specific pathogen-free shrimp broodstock since 1996. The company is also an oyster and clam seed hatchery. Because the species are not native to Hawaii, they cannot be raised here, so the company's customers are mostly on the mainland and in Asia.
While the company would normally travel to the mainland in search of business, this conference presents a good opportunity for the world to come to them, said Yuan.
The latest figures from the state Department of Agriculture indicate that the value of Hawaii's aquaculture production was just more than $25 million in 2002. John Corbin, who heads the state's Aquaculture Program said he expects 2003 figures to be even higher, perhaps up to $27 million.
When this year's conference ends, more than 1,000 scientific and industry papers will have been presented. That's all good news for Hawaii's growing aquaculture industry, say those who have attended.
"I think the world is watching what's going on here," said Janet Crawford, spokeswoman for the Oceanic Institute in Waimanalo.