As the Ministry of Primary Industries is involved in the expansion of Prawn (Fiji) Ltd., Ravi Ravi up to 150 ha, the problem of feed production has to be passed on to the feed industry sector. Consultancy of possible partners, which has started during the present survey, has to be continued up to the selection of best counterpart. That selection would not exclude a possibility for other feed manufacturer to be temporarily or permanently involved with the production of shrimp feed.
However, shrimp feed production at industrial level requires some expertise and the problem has already been solved for example by IFREMER France Aquaculture to transfer technology and know how to a local manufacturer in New Caledonia in 1984. This transfer was done in association with N.R.M. Feeds a New Zealand partner. Now industrial production is going on in New Caledonia at a pace of around 40 mt of shrimp feed a month and Prawn (Fiji) Ltd. project is one customer.
The same action could be underdone here in Fiji.
The advantages of such a solution are that there is guarantee from technological side first to keep production on-going, but also from a nutrition point of view where any achievement from the research side can be shifted to the production level in order to try to keep the farm running with best formulated feeds.
There are several candidate feed mills in Fiji. A proposal including specifications on a formulated feed similar as the one enclosed in this report (See Tables 2, 3, 4, and 5), specifications on modified equipment for producing water stable shrimp feed, and tonnage to be expected from them according to a given calendar, should be transmitted to the main manufacturers.
The coordinator for this prospective study could be the manager of Prawn (Fiji) Ltd., Ravi Ravi who has already been involved in such kind of transactions near local manufacturers before.
Specification on final quality of shrimp feed would require some investments up to F$ 64,000 which of course will be accepted by the feed mill provided that at least 100 mt are susceptible to be prepared with a rapid increase up to 300 mt.
The most appropriate feed mill of Fiji to organize production of pellets seems to be Crest Chicken Ltd., Suva. They produced the best impression during the present survey. They are connected with a New Zealander counterpart which is the same as the one dealing with New Caledonian feed mill producing Macrobrachium and penaeid feeds in New Caledonia.
Feed manufacturing for freshwater prawn is very similar to that one for marine shrimp, same need for fine grinding, a binder, a good mixing, extruding or pelletizing the feed through dies of 1.7 to 2.5 mm diameter, possibility for coating with fish oil and lecithin, and drying and cooling system before bagging.
TABLE 2 : PROPOSED COMPOSITION OF FORMULA DIET FOR PENAEUS MONODON
| INGREDIENTS | % | PROTEIN | LIPID | FIBER | ASH | NITROGEN FREE EXTRACT | F$/kg | |
| PAFCO FISH MEAL | 30 | 55.5 (16.7) | 10 (3.0) | 23.5 (7.1) | 5.0 (1.5) | 0.620 | (18.6) | |
| *N.Z. FISH MEAL | 10 | 65.0 (6.5) | 7 (0.7) | 15.0 (1.5) | 3.0 (0.3) | 1.54 | (15.4) | |
| HARD WHEAT FLOUR | 25 | 13.5 (3.4) | 5.6 (1.4) | 7.5 (1.9) | 2.0 (0.5) | 65 (16.3) | 0.50 | (12.5) |
| US SOYA BEAN MEAL | 10 | 47.0 (4.7) | 0.5 (0.1) | 3.0 (0.3) | 7.0 (0.7) | 32 (3.2) | 0.95 | (9.5) |
| * SHRIMP SHELL MEAL | 10 | 34.0 (3.4) | 3.0 (0.3) | 14.0 (1.4) | 27.0 (2.7) | 5.0 (0.5) | 1.80 | (18.0) |
| * DRIED BREWERY YEAST | 4 | 47.0 (1.9) | 0.7 (0.03) | 2.5 (0.1) | 7.0 (0.3) | 39.0 (1.6) | 0.90 | (3.6) |
| MOLASSES | 2 | 4.0 (0.1) | 7.5 (0.2) | 60.0 (1.2) | 0.06 | (0.1) | ||
| * SKIMMED MILK POWDER | 2 | 35.0 (0.7) | 1.0 (0.02) | 8.0 (0.2) | 51.0 (1.0) | 1.90 | (3.8) | |
| BINDER | 1 | 4.1 | (4.1) | |||||
| * VITAMIN MIXTURE (1) | 1 | 13.0 | (13.0) | |||||
| * MINERAL MIXTURE (2) | 3 | 100 (3.0) | 0.9 | (2.7) | ||||
| * FISH PROTEIN CONCENTRATE | 2 | 80.0 (1.6) | 5.0 (0.1) | 6.0 (0.1) | 2.8 | (5.6) | ||
| * Butyl Hydroxy Toluene | 0.02 | |||||||
| TOTAL | 100 | (39.0) | (5.7) | (3.7) | (16.3) | (25.6) | (1.07) | |
| Milling cost | F$ 0.22 |
| Profit margin | 0.10 |
| Material cost | 1.07 |
| Total cost per kg | F$ 1.39 |
TABLE 3 : COMPOSITION OF A PENAEID SHRIMP VITAM MIXTURE
| VITAMIN | AMOUNT PER KILOGRAM OF DIET |
| VITAMIN A | 10 000 iu |
| VITAMIN D | 2 000 iu |
| VITAMIN E | 200 iu |
| VITAMIN K | 10 mg |
| CHOLIN CHLORIDE | 3 000 mg |
| INOSITOL | 600 mg |
| PHOSPITAN C | 5 000 mg |
| THIAMIN. -HCE | 30 mg |
| PYRIDOXIN HCE | 50 mg |
| NICOTINIC ACID | 140 mg |
| Ca-PANTOTHENATE | 100 mg |
| FOLIC ACID | 5 mg |
| BIOTIN | 1 mg |
| CYANOCOBALAMIN | 0.05 mg |
TABLE 4 : RECOMMENDED MINERALS
| MINERAL | AMOUNT PER KILOGRAM OF DIET |
| MANGANESE | 40 mg |
| ZINC | 50 mg |
| COPPER | 4 mg |
| IODINE | 1 mg |
| COBALT | 0.4 mg |
TABLE 5 : ONE PAGE SUMMARY OVER P. monodon FIJI SHRIMP FEED
| If REMCR TARAVAO, TAHITI P. MONODON FIJI SHRIMP FEED | Data disk | WARWATER FISHE | WARWATER FISHE | |||||||||||||
| INGREDIENT | LIST 7 (P. MONODON FIJI SHRIMP FEED ) | |||||||||||||||
| MUIRIENT | LIST 8 (P. MONODON FIJI SHRIMP FEED ) | |||||||||||||||
| INGREDIENTS | AMOUNTS | PRICES | PERCENTS | MUIRIENT | AMOUNTS | COST | ||||||||||
| ROUNDED | LOW | TRUE | HIGH | MIN | DRY | MAX | AS FED | MIN | ACTUAL | MAX | ||||||
| FISH, TUPLA MEAL LEY | 600.00 | - | 0.62 | - | 30.000 | 30.000 | 40.000 | 30.000 | MOISTURE | % | 8.62 | |||||
| WHEAT, GRAIN, HARD | 500.00 | - | 0.50 | - | 25.000 | 25.000 | 30.000 | 25.000 | GE | CAL/KG | 3723.70 | |||||
| FISH, WHEAT MEAL | 213.33 | - | 1.54 | 49.39 | 10.000 | 10.667 | - | 10.667 | PROTEIN | % | 38.60 | 38.60 | - | 9.37719 | ||
| SOYABEN MEAL, SOL EXT | 200.00 | - | 69.92 | - | 10.000 | 10.000 | - | 10.000 | LIPID | % | 4.00 | 4.42 | 8.00 | .000000 | ||
| CARB MEAL | 200.00 | - | 1.00 | - | 10.000 | 10.000 | - | 10.000 | FIBER | % | 1.00 | 3.34 | 4.00 | .000000 | ||
| YEAST, BREWRS, DEHY | 80.00 | - | 0.90 | - | 4.000 | 4.000 | - | 4.000 | ASH | % | 14.00 | 17.52 | 19.00 | .000000 | ||
| OPSP BO | 55.00 | 4.67 | 215.34 | - | 2.000 | 2.833 | 3.000 | 2.833 | ARGININE | % | 2.34 | |||||
| WIEY, DEHY (CATTLE) | 40.00 | - | 1.90 | - | 2.000 | 2.000 | 3.000 | 2.000 | GLYCINE | % | 2.51 | |||||
| MOLASSES CANE, DENY | 40.00 | - | 0.06 | - | 2.000 | 2.000 | 4.000 | 2.000 | HISTIDINE | % | 0.99 | |||||
| CALCIUM PHOS DIBASC | 40.00 | - | 62.92 | - | 2.000 | 2.000 | - | 2.000 | ISOLEUCINE | % | 1.67 | |||||
| GUAR GUM | 20.00 | - | 588.02 | - | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | LEUCINE | % | 2.62 | |||||
| VITAMIN MIXTURE | 10.00 | - | 16.00 | - | 0.500 | 0.500 | 1.000 | 0.500 | LYSINE | % | 2.57 | |||||
| METHIONINE | % | 0.88 | ||||||||||||||
| CYSTINE | % | 0.45 | ||||||||||||||
| TOTAL WEIGHT | 1998.33 | METHICYST | % | 1.33 | ||||||||||||
| PRICE/TON (WET) | 420.85 | PHENYLALIN | % | 1.53 | ||||||||||||
| PRICE/TON (DRY) | 420.85 | TYROSINE | % | 1.20 | ||||||||||||
| LARGEST COST | 11.32 | SERINE | % | 1.57 | ||||||||||||
| THREONINE | % | 1.52 | ||||||||||||||
| CALCIUM | % | 5.12 | ||||||||||||||
| PHOSPHORUS | % | 2.46 | ||||||||||||||
| POTASSIUM | % | 0.81 | ||||||||||||||
| CLORINE | % | 0.58 | ||||||||||||||
| MAGNESIUM | % | 0.27 | ||||||||||||||
| SODIUM | % | 0.42 | ||||||||||||||
| SULFUR | % | 0.42 | ||||||||||||||
| COPPER | MG/KG | 14.45 | ||||||||||||||
| IRON | MG/KG | 873.52 | ||||||||||||||
| MANGANESE | MG/KG | 34.37 | ||||||||||||||
| SELENIUM | MG/MG | 1.63 | ||||||||||||||
| ZINC | MG/KG | 90.94 | ||||||||||||||
| COBALT | % | 0.00 | ||||||||||||||
| FLUORINE | % | 0.00 | ||||||||||||||
| IODINE | % | 0.00 | ||||||||||||||
| BIOTIN | MG/KG | 0.33 | ||||||||||||||
| CHOLINE | MG/KG | 2245.33 | ||||||||||||||
| FOLIC ACID | MG/KG | 1.86 | ||||||||||||||
| NIACIN | MG/KG | 138.51 | ||||||||||||||
| PANT ACID | MG/KG | 30.45 | ||||||||||||||
| VIT 86 | MG/KG | 9.19 | ||||||||||||||
| RIBOFLAVIN | MG/KG | 16.23 | ||||||||||||||
| THIAMIN | MG/KG | 9.57 | ||||||||||||||
| VIT B12 | MG/KG | 145.32 | ||||||||||||||
| VIT E | MG/KG | 505.99 | ||||||||||||||
| VIT K | MG/KG | 4.00 | ||||||||||||||
| VIT A | IU/KG | %40000.00 | ||||||||||||||
| VIT D | IU/KG | %49000.00 | ||||||||||||||
| VIT C | MG/KG | 500.00 | ||||||||||||||
Objectives:
Research and technology on feed preparation, transfer to private sector.
Feeding tests for culturing marine shrimps at Prawn (Fiji) Ltd., Ravi Ravi and freshwater prawn and Tilapia at Naduruloulou Station.
Schedule:
Ingredients locally made fish meal and copra study of maxim of incorporation in shrimp diet.
Amino acid, fatty acids, vitamins compositions on Fiji feed stuffs partly to be made at Koronivia Research Station.
Effect of different binders on the stability and leaching of nutrients in the shrimp diets made from local materials (stanguard, guar gum, etc.) cassava, wheat flour, seaweeds.
Effect of feeding levels and stocking density on the growth, conversion ratio and survival of penaeid.
Studies on nutritional requirements of P. monodon for protein, amino-acids, etc.
Use of automatic feeders, effect of the number of meals on growth of shrimp. Husbandry problems.
Least cost of formulated feed to be tested at Marine Lab. of Fisheries Division in tanks with a proper filtering system or at Prawn (Fiji) Ltd., Ravi Ravi to conduct tests, feeding tests in l m by l m enclosures with sufficient implication of each treatment.
Use of anti-oxydants in feeds.
Terms of reference for a feed expert:
Make a survey of locally available ingredients in Fiji and of possible source of imports of raw materials from Pacific Ocean area.
Make a unit to test artificial feeds for shrimp, Tilapia, Macrobrachium at the Prawn (Fiji) Ltd., Ravi Ravi and at research Station.
Contact all feeds manufacturers to produce feeds at industrial levels.
Use the feed workshop at Fresh-water Aquaculture Research Station, Naduruloulou for starter feed and experimentation purpose.
Propose a range of formulation as a synthesis of items 3.1 to 3.4 for all species raised at Fiji.
Costing:
Salary and travel expenses for a foreign feed expert Totalling US$ 32,000 per year.
Equipment:
Suggestion for collaboration in nutrition research:
Even though a lot of work in nutrition/feeding of P. monodon has already being done and is available through literature, a lot of information is still on hand with industrial sector and the knowledge concerning nutrition of P. monodon still have to be improved.
In the past, some good collaboration existed between IFREMER/France Aquaculture and Fiji Aquaculture team and it should be more than valuable to continue this formal cooperation specially with the forthcoming development of shrimp farming in Fiji.
Following topics of collaboration :
