Bluewave announces first fish peptide isolate plant in Ecuador

October 2, 2009

Bluewave Marine IngredientsTM has announced the successful startup of a "first of a kind" Fish Peptide Isolate (FPi) production plant in Manta, Ecuador.

The project is a joint venture between Marine Protein S.A.C. of Manta, Ecuador and Bluewave Management, Inc. of Panama.

The JV is structured whereby Bluewave will manage IP and control product formulations, process development and sales/marketing of the Fish Peptide/Peptone products, while Marine Protein SAC will operate the plant and manage local logistics / raw material contracts.

The sanitary grade facility began commercial scale production of Peptides this summer with Ecuadorian poultry/aquaculture clients being the first to incorporate PerfectDigestTM FPi into their feed formulas.

Inclusion rates of 0.5-1.0 percent during the first two to four weeks of feeding has resulted in Feed Conversion Rate (FCR) improvements of several percent for poultry. These results have prompted additional local poultry/shrimp/tilapia feed manufacturers and farm operators to initiate trials to determine efficacy in their own applications as well.

Luis Daqui, the Sr. Nutritionist for AgriPac / Balanfarina Feed company of Guayaquil said, "The initial inclusions have shown a catalytic affect of the Fish Peptide by helping the chick''s digestive tract to develop and to better convert all the other feed which is consumed. About 50g of dry matter FPi has been enough to improve FCR by several points and finish weights by more than 100g".

Poultry operations see a reduction in total feed consumed to offset the Peptide inclusion (which is about six-eight cents per chick) and then above that they are seeing animals reach larger harvest weights in fewer days. In total, the first two applications have averaged about 300 percent ROI (18 cents/bird) when including the Fish Peptide Isolates. The ease with which FCR improvements were demonstrated by local poultry producers drove the fast adoption rates in that segment, while aquaculture and swine benefit similarly.

COO Mark Rottmann said, "The Bluewave process is unique in that it utilises patent protected membrane technology and can produce highly purified peptide isolates with zero fat content, something which no other company is currently doing in the Americas… our plants are capable of producing human grade protein products as well".

The Ecuador site is currently capable of producing about 600 tonnes/year of the Peptide product with plans to double capacity in the near future and Bluewave''s Pisco, Peru plant with over 3,000 tonnes of capacity is expected to come on line in the first half of 2010.

Discussions for joint venture sites in Asia & Africa are underway as well.