The world’s food supply is being made insecure by climate change impacts such as heat waves, droughts, floods, cyclones and wildfires, resulting in an urgent need for innovation and investment. Currently, aquaculture provides over half of all the fish products eaten in the world, with 90% of the production coming from the Asia Pacific region. More will be needed given the growing world population and climate issues.
Companies and nations are responding and some of the leading figures in aquaculture innovation will be presenting at the SVG Ventures|THRIVE Hawaii Agrifood Summit at the Honolulu Convention Center on September 26 and 27.
Lissy Smit, chief executive officer (CEO) of Netherlands-based Aqua-Spark will address the Summit on September 27. Aqua-Spark is particularly interested in companies and technologies focused on replacing fishmeal with novel food ingredients to promote fish health, finding alternatives for antibiotics, reducing feed waste, data collection for production optimization, improving farm practices and increasing transparency in the supply chain.
Robin Pearl, chief shrimper for Florida-based Sun Shrimp, will talk about DNA tools and info tech for shrimp farming; Toru Mitsuboshi, chief researcher for Japan-based Nissui Corporation, will discuss the advancing technologies for yellowtail, salmon and shrimp production; and Dick Jones, CEO of Hawaii-based Blue Ocean Mariculture, currently the only open ocean fin fish aquaculture company in the United States, will discuss offshore fish farming.
Local speakers include president and CEO of Pacific American Foundation Herb Lee who will present on indigenous technologies and aina-based learning at Hawaiian fishponds, and Alexia Akbay, CEO of Big Island-based Symbrosia, will participate in a panel on trends and opportunities for algae in Hawaii and the Asia Pacific region.
Summit Founders Jason Ueki and Jim Wyban are firmly convinced that Hawaii and the Asia Pacific region are perfectly positioned to be leaders in ag tech and are dedicated to bringing knowledge and opportunity to the state.
Find more information and register here.
