GenoMar officially opened the new facility on October 21 in a ceremony taking place in Palmas, Tocantins. Representatives from the company, authorities and industry leaders gathered to celebrate this strategic investment that supports the development of a profitable and sustainable tilapia industry in Brazil, Latin America, and the world.
The breeding center took two years to construct and will be the first of its kind for tilapia species in the Latin American region. It will have sufficient capacity to manage GenoMar’s breeding programs as well as produce parent stock for its distribution operations. The new facility will enhance GenoMar’s distribution infrastructure in Brazil and support its expansion efforts in the region with Colombia and Mexico in the spotlight.
“This facility provides an ideal and safe home for our breeding programs in Latin America. It will significantly strengthen our ability to breed tilapia with optimal and predictable field performance for the Brazilian and international markets,” said Diones Almeida, breeding director at GenoMar Genetics Latin America.
At this facility, some of the world´s best tilapia geneticists and scientists will work applying the latest technologies in selective breeding to continuously enhance favorable traits. This includes balanced breeding for growth rate, feed conversion rate, health, and adaptability to global production environments as well as increasing the fillet yield and fillet quality in GenoMar brands and products.
The breeding center has a high biosecurity level and an effective surveillance program for the most important tilapia pathogens worldwide. After obtaining official accreditation of its own quarantine facility in January 2022, the company is already working very closely with the Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) in Brazil to certify the facility as SPF and/or disease-free compartment in the coming years.
“Every decision about site selection, water source and layout has been made to develop a new standard for biosecurity in the industry,” said Marina Delphino, fish health manager at GenoMar Genetics Latin America.
“I am very proud of this milestone in the history of our company. The team has worked untiringly to develop a breeding center that complies with high-level biosecurity, good fish health and multiplication of high merit brood stock to the tilapia industry,” said Alejandro Tola Alvarez, CEO at GenoMar Genetics Group.
A presentation of the GenoMar Breeding & Genetics Centre and its operational features can be seen here.
