www.skrett ing. i t

No. 20 - Autumn 2015 - The magazine of Skretting Italia SpA

InformaSKRETTING

ENHANCING PERFORMANCE & SUSTAINABILITY

ENHANCING PERFORMANCE & SUSTAINABILITY

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Skretting Informa is published by Skretting and is distributed to its customers.Trimestrale aziendale di informazione. Distribuzione gratuita.Cadere 2014- Anno XII Numero 18 Autorizzazione tribunale di VeronaReg. Stampa 1532 del 30.11.2011

2 SKRETTING INFORMA

As a life product, AquaSim adapts to all the new products developed by the Skretting Aquaculture Research Centre (ARC). As Skretting’s global research organisation, ARC’s R&D focuses on achieving the best economics for fish farmers throughout the production cycle. Two of the most important innovations in this regard are: MicroBalance, which utilises micronutrient technology that allows Skretting to choose from a wider range of feed ingredients without impacting performance, welfare or end-product quality; and Premium, which is a high energy feed containing metabolic activators that increase the utilisation of digestible energy, enabling better growth with less feed.

When ARC delivers new inputs and more efficient feeds are subsequently developed, AquaSim adapts to the new feed and new tools are created.

Through AquaSim, our customers receive recommendations for every new feed system coming into the market, which they can study and then establish the benefits to be obtained from implementing them, safe in the knowledge that new tools support that move.

Another approach that the BU Southern Europe is taking alongside the AquaSim rollout is its technical staff will be visiting customers’ sites to take samples of the fish currently in the production system and then share data and establish correction protocols if needed. The customers will learn how their stocks are performing at a certain point in the growth cycle ahead of harvest.

Ultimately, it will help customers achieve greater long-term profitability.

The bigger picture

Fernando SanzCommercial Manager, Skretting Spain

2 SKRETTING INFORMA

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INFORMA

Launching across Europe, Skretting’s robust set of innovative AquaSim management tools combine biology, quality and economics to give qualified references through which fish farmers can calculate expected farm performance and which will also help them to further enhance their production.

Over the course of the last two decades, Skretting’s research teams have established a comprehensive portfolio of growth models for the large number of aquaculture species that it supplies feeds for with the express purpose of forecasting how they will perform in different surrounding conditions.

This unique analysis, which is constantly being expanded to new regions and situations, provides the platform for AquaSim, the new global product that connects all the value-added models and services available free-of-charge to customers alongside the feeds that they are buying.

Based upon appraisals of the farming environment and each farm’s production targets, AquaSim provides a number of tailored recommendations, including the most cost-effective stocking patterns, feed selection and feeding strategy to enable each to achieve their desired results.

While many customers are already receiving technical support together with their feeds, AquaSim extends this offering with the addition of new tools and packages in a way that is much easier for Skretting customers to understand, explains Juan Antonio González, Coordinator for Skretting’s Business Unit (BU) Southern Europe.

“The AquaSim programme provides a clearer structure for them to recognise, and it reinforces that these services are for their benefit. At the same time, it provides the programme under which many more new tools and services will be developed and further differentiates Skretting in the marketplace,” says González.

AQUASIMOptimised farm solutions made easy

We believe the AquaSim package will

enable us to be of more value to

our customers Juan Antonio

González Garcia Coordinator for Skretting’s

Business Unit (BU) Southern Europe

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BREAKTHROUGH TOOLSIt is expected that AquaSim will be officially unveiled in BU Southern Europe beginning of 2016 and that the launch will coincide with the addition of some new tools, beginning with the AquaSim Production Planner. Through highly accurate diagnoses, it will help customers to forecast their full production cycle at each site, as well as establish when the fish will be suitable for the market.

Another benefit of the AquaSim Production Planner is that users will be able to map different alternatives with regards to when to put their fry in the water.

An AquaSim Cost Benefit Model and an AquaSim Product Recommendation Tool – the next steps in the AquaSim rollout strategy – will be ready for all species in the second- or third-quarter of 2016.

“We believe the AquaSim package will help us to be of more value to our customers. We want to establish strong commercial relationships, based on creating success by delivering solutions, and not just selling products,” says González.

MULTI-SPECIES APPROACHToday, Skretting produces high-quality sustainable feeds for more than 60 species of farmed fish and shrimp. At the same time, key aims within its company-wide strategy, include increasing the total sales volume to 2.7 million tonnes by the end of 2016 (2014: 2 million tonnes), while also growing feed volumes for shrimp and non-salmonids to between 45% and 50% of its total output.

In line with this ambition, the global team puts considerable effort in creating products and tools in the most unified way possible. AquaSim development, therefore, is conducted across all the different commercial species at the same time, with the purpose of simultaneously launching the resulting tools like the AquaSim Production Planner species-wide, says González.

“Within our Business Unit, the main species are seabass, seabream and rainbow trout. But we have also had several meetings this year with other fish producers, especially turbot and sole, who are very interested in the AquaSim project.

“From a technical perspective, it is going to help customers establish the best options regarding the feed that they are going to use – for every species in every environment, and for every part of the year. In every case, it will make it easier for the customer to make decisions on which product to use, when to buy it, how much feed do they need and when to feed their fish.

“It will also enable them to conduct more efficient production planning. We have to help our customers achieve the biggest profit they can from the investment in our feed,” he says.

TAILORED PROTOCOLSBecause no two fish farms are the same, the range of tools within AquaSim enables Skretting and the producer to tailor-make an ideal production system by fine-tuning the tools and adapting them to meet their specific needs. Furthermore, using key performance indicators (KPIs), fish farmers can evaluate the growth levels they are seeing against the forecast. They can also check feed conversion ratios (FCRs) and specific feed rations (SFRs) to establish if too much feed or too little is being given.

“Working together with fish farmers since several years and exchanging close data created a wide knowledge on farming cost-benefit parameters reflecting the real situations in the industry. We are also constantly fine-tuning them to optimise relevance for every market. Through that work, we are giving customers the opportunity to benchmark themselves,” says González.

“AquaSim helps producers optimise their business in ways and to a level of detail that they have not been able to in the past. There is nothing else like it in the aquaculture feeds sector; it really sets Skretting apart,” says González.

Skretting is the only company that is working side-by-side with the customer in order to reduce the feed consumptionFernando Sanz Asenjo Commercial manager of Skretting Spain

KEY NUMBERS

2.7MILLION TONNES

SKRETTING’S PRODUCTION FORECAST BY

THE END OF 2016

0.3-0.5 REDUCTION IN THE

FCR OF LAND-BASED BASS AND BREAM

FARMS USING AQUASIM TOOLS

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INFORMA

From a technical perspective, it

is going to help customers establish

the best options regarding the feed that they are going to use – for every

species in every environment, and for every part of the year

Juan Antonio González Garcia

Coordinator for Skretting’s Business Unit (BU) South Europe

LIFE PRODUCT

Not only does AquaSim provide specific tools for every aquaculture site, taking full account of the unique circumstances affecting each, it is constantly evolving through its inclusion of new Skretting protocols and ingredients, thereby giving users new objectives to aim for.

“It is a ‘life product’,” says Fernando Sanz, commercial manager of Spain. “In that I mean it is always improving, so once a site or a customer is achieving the results that the AquaSim manager has recommended, they meet and create new targets for future stocks. Then the model changes once again, adjusting to the new goals.

“Nothing is fixed. And that is very important because a fish farmer will be encouraged to know that the performance of his fish stocks could be bettered year-after-year and they will be rewarded financially as a result.”

Even the biggest producers with multiple sites and stocks as well as their own feeding strategies will benefit from AquaSim, says Sanz.

“This is because they used to be isolated with their own data. However, AquaSim allows them to benchmark their data with our model, which will give them a stronger, safer figure of what they

6 SKRETTING INFORMA

Charting a responsible course

Now available online, Skretting has published its Annual Sustainability Report 2014, which not only details its performance throughout last year, it also identifies the goals and targets that will guide the company in the years ahead.

We have repeatedly heard that the world’s pop-ulation will grow substantially over the next 35 years to an estimated 9 billion people. Some major questions have arisen as a result of this projection, not least how to ramp up the global supply of seafood to meet the increased de-mand. Knowing that most wild-capture fisheries have plateaued, it is widely accepted that aqua-culture offers the only genuinely viable solution to the challenge.

As an essential link in the feed-to-food value chain, Skretting is determined to help the aq-uaculture industry become even more proficient than it is currently. It also understands that the drive towards greater efficiency in aquafeeds re-quires considerable focus on environmental and economic sustainability and has therefore estab-lished a robust focus on these areas throughout its global operations and locations.

Covering the activities of Operating Companies (OpCos) owned and operated by the Skretting Group for the 2014 calendar year, the Annual Sustainability Report 2014 was written accord-ing to the GRI G3.1 Guidelines and the accom-panying Food Producer Sector Supplement. It is the second consecutive annual report that cov-ers all of the business’ aquaculture activities.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMITMENTSFirst and foremost, Skretting believes that sus-tainability begins at home and is therefore com-mitted to ensuring its own house is in order by pursuing greater energy efficiencies as well as reducing the amount of waste and emissions generated through direct operations.

“It is important to us that we run our business and our factories in a sustainable way and we have made considerable progress in that regard,” says Trygve Berg Lea, sustainability manager for the Skretting Group. “We are able to clearly define our footprint in important areas like energy use, CO

2 emissions, water use, waste management,

7 SKRETTING

INFORMA

in addition to having a safe working environment in place. We now routinely register detailed data in these areas and are also including concrete targets and how to improve the business.”

Because the sustainability attributes of fish and shrimp diets are greatly influenced by the methods used to produce and distribute the raw materials from which they are formulated, Skretting’s responsibility commitments also ex-tend into promoting sustainable practices in the broader value chain.

Through the Nutreco Supplier Code of Conduct, Skretting sets clear requirements from its sup-pliers relating to human rights, labour practices, the environment, fair operating as well as food safety and quality. There are also specific poli-cies for marine and soy products that are more focused on explicit environmental issues associ-ated with the production of these materials.

“The code demands that our raw material sup-pliers also work according to sustainable princi-ples,” says Berg Lea.

TRANSPARENCY OF ORIGINSkretting goes to great lengths to ensure that all the ingredients used in its feeds are from respon-sibly managed sources with each raw material un-dergoing a comprehensive evaluation and approv-al process before being transported to its plants.

Because they are sourced from wild-capture fisheries, the use of fishmeal and fish oil in aqua-feeds remains one of the biggest issues for the aquaculture industry. Skretting believes that ef-forts to reduce the level of these ingredients in feeds will not improve the status of world’s marine resources unless they are accompanied by efforts further up the supply chain to improve fisheries management. Therefore, Skretting only sources marine ingredients from suppliers that are able to demonstrate a commitment to re-sponsible fisheries management and requires them all to provide information about the species and fisheries of origin of these products.

This approach has resulted in the full transpar-ency of the origins of all marine ingredients used by Skretting, says Berg Lea.

He adds that Skretting is a strong supporter of the IFFO RS standard for the responsible supply of fishmeal and fish oil. All of the fish oil used by the OpCo originates from IFFO RS approved fisheries.

FLEXIBLE FORMULATIONSIn an increasingly demanding market, Skretting also believes it has a responsibility to the value chain to offer solutions that make the most efficient use of raw material resources, explains Berg Lea.

Researchers at Skretting Aquaculture Research Centre (ARC) have been extremely active in this area of research for many years and through product solutions like MicroBalance, Optiline Premium and Protec, Skretting is able to offer its customers innovative and sustainable nutritional solutions that create more value.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENTSkretting’s commitments extend far beyond its products and solutions though. Within the con-text of sustainability, it is also keen to motivate the many global communities in which it operates and has found that one of the best ways to progress them is through community development projects. The nature of this involvement varies depending on the local culture and needs of the community.

One of its most recent improvement projects is a one-year pilot project to promote sustainable fish farming for smallholder farmers in Nigeria. Initi-ated alongside Oxfam Novib to meet the Nigerian government’s desire to encourage domestic pro-duction, it is expected that the project will lead to higher productivity and a better income for the fish farmers – mainly women – with the added benefit of more sustainable production methods.

Skretting is already an important player in the country’s fish feed market and has a produc-tion facility through a joint-venture with local fish feed supplier Durante. As well as providing high-quality feeds, Nigerian farmers are now benefit-ing from on-site training and are being taught to produce to international aquaculture standards, which could eventually also help them gain ac-cess to international markets.

To progress and improve our work in the sustainability area, we have set and will continue to set concrete commitments, and so far we have consistently met those obligations Trygve Berg Lea Sustainability Manager for the Skretting Group

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“In the past, the focus has been on achieving the standards required by the supply chain, but I think more and more people now realise that by following such an approach you will only focus on the companies that are already doing well, thereby creating an exclusive market. As a re-sult, they have not been supporting those op-erations that want to move in that direction but are unable to do so because they need more knowledge to progress,” says Berg Lea.

“Today we are seeing growing support for im-provement projects from many sectors. I believe that Skretting will become even more active in aiding such initiatives, including helping fisheries to become IFFO RS certified, which will benefit the bigger supply chain.”

SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENTSThe following commitments have been set as the basis of Skretting’s sustainability strategy. They include a range of short-, medium- and long-term objectives that are linked to the material aspects covered by its Sustainable Economic Aquafeeds (SEA) pillars.

HAVING OUR OWN HOUSE IN ORDERRESPONSIBLE OPERATIONS

· All operating companies in Business Group Global Salmon and Fishfeed Southern Europe to report on five operational KPI’s each quarter

· All operating companies in Business Group Global Salmon and Fishfeed Southern Europe to undertake self-assessment for Responsible Operations Standard (ROS) by the end of 2015

SAFE AND HEALTHY WORKPLACE

· To reduce lost time injuries by 50% by 2020 (2010 base year)

DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE NUTRITIONAL SOLUTIONSFEEDING 9 BILLION PEOPLE

· Deliver high-performance feeds to secure aquaculture’s position as the most efficient source of protein

SECURING ANIMAL HEALTHFUNCTIONAL NUTRITION

· Assist farmers in addressing specific health problems

· Enable farmers to take a proactive approach to managing fish and shrimp health

FINDING ALTERNATIVES TO LIMITED MARINE RESOURCESFLEXIBLE FORMULATIONS

· Increase knowledge of nutritional needs and metabolism of omega-3 fatty acids in fish and shrimp

TRACEABILITY OF MARINE RESOURCES

· Increase the electronic registration of species and fishery data to 95% of all marine ingredients purchased by Skretting in 2016

CREATING A SUSTAINABLE BASE FOR FEEDSUSTAINABLE SOURCING

· Include short list on sustainability requirements towards raw material suppliers as part of regular food safety audits.

SUSTAINABLE PARTNERSHIPS

· Engage in at least one Fishery Improvement project in 2015

FEED-TO-FOOD QUALITY AND SAFETY

· Zero product recalls and/or feed safety incidents reported to authorities

INVOLVE AND MOTIVATEEMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

· Make e-learning module on sustainability available to all employees by end of 2015

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

· Engage with stakeholders on Skretting materiality assessment during 2015

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

· Assist Nutreco to execute an aquaculture-based community development project in 2015

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITIONEarlier this year, Skretting was named joint top in the 2015 Seafood Intelligence benchmarking of the world’s ‘Top 35 Salmon Farming & Top 3 Fish Feed Firm’s Corporate, Social & Environmental Re-sponsibility (CSER)/Sustainability Reporting’.

According to Seafood Intelligence, this position – up from second place last year – reflects significant work by the Skretting global sustainability team in improving its sustainability data reporting and the transparency of environmental/social criteria. Skretting’s Annual Sustainability Report 2014 is available at:

http://sustainability.skretting.com/2014