Back to Aquaculture Europe 2020

From 12 to 15 April 2021, we participated in one of the most important meetings of the aquaculture industry: Aquaculture Europe 2020. First organized at the end of the year 2020, this edition has been totally revised to be offered as 100% digital.

We selected 56 conferences, related to the problems/issues of our members, but also to the sector, more widely. These talks were mainly about the environment and the development of the sector, with the following themes :

• the circular economy - the use of resources - the impacts on the environment
  automation of processes, and precision aquaculture
• new farming techniques (aquaponics, IMTA, new species)
• sustainable aquaculture food
• emerging markets
• new consumption trends
• (...)

Find out more the evaluation of Marie, Project Manager:

The conferences dealt with various themes related to aquaculture in general. The aspects of reducing the impacts of aquaculture (marine and terrestrial) were widely discussed. Indeed, although the development of aquaculture is necessary to feed the growing world population and limit the negative impacts on wild fish and shellfish stocks, the reduction of the environmental footprint of these farms is a major issue. To achieve this, studies are conducted to quantify the carbon impacts of farms, but also on the entire chain: from the producers of ingredients, to their transport, to the aquaculture production itself, the processing of products and their transport to the final consumer. All these points are highlighted in order to contribute to their improvement. Several approaches are proposed at different points such as:

• the food: producing better ingredients with superior nutritional qualities, but also better dosing the quantities of food or introducing IMTA systems in order to "reuse" uneaten food and decrease pollution by eutrophication;
• promote local markets and thus reduce transport energy costs;
• develop sensors to manage water quality: this will help manage practices, anticipate decisions and promote animal welfare;
• Better manage diseases: thanks to sensors that will allow to monitor water quality and anticipate the development of pathogens, find better ways to control pathogens...

All these notions of best practices in general were accompanied by technological developments. These new technologies will have to be accessible both financially and in their use for professionals in the sector wishing to adapt them to their existing facilities. The data generated will also have to be easy to process and allow easy modeling and decision-making.

Various projects were also presented, on the themes mentioned above, letting us envisage improvements in practices in the years to come!

For more information, do not hesitate to contact her!