Photo: Skretting China Zhuhai

From 'Mission Impossible' to Market Leader: Skretting China Pioneers Top-Quality RAS Feed for Domestic Salmon Boom

Facing unique challenges in a nascent industry, Skretting China transformed its production capabilities to supply specialized feed for the nation's burgeoning recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) salmon farms, securing undisputed market leadership.

ZHUHAI – Recognizing the burgeoning potential of domestic salmon farming in China but noting the nascent experience in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), Skretting, a global leader in aquaculture feed, embarked on a strategic mission in 2021. The goal: to become the preferred RAS feed supplier for China's ambitious salmon projects, leveraging its expertise from traditional salmon-producing regions like Norway.

RCX feed pellets

A critical first step was achieving RCX certification for its Zhuhai factory. This rigorous internal program ensures premium feeds meet stringent nutritional requirements for rapid, healthy fish growth in RAS, while also maintaining superior and consistent physical pellet quality essential for system balance and water integrity.

The journey was anything but straightforward. Combining high-fat salmon feed with impeccable pellet quality is inherently complex. The challenge was compounded by the factory's existing equipment, initially designed for shrimp and low-fat fish feeds, and the humid climate of southern China—vastly different from Nordic conditions.

"At the time there was no production of Atlantic salmon in Asia, so there was no high-quality salmon feed available there," explains Stuart Fyfe, Global Process Excellence Leader at Nutreco, Skretting's parent company. "Producing feed that’s high in fat requires special raw materials, equipment, and a different approach to process and quality control."

Under Fyfe’s team's guidance, Skretting China made substantial investments in new equipment and implemented overhauled processes. The local team diligently conducted numerous trials until they could reliably produce the specialized RCX feed. In 2022, the Zhuhai factory officially earned its RCX certification, paving the way for the production of Skretting feed tailored for Atlantic salmon grow-out in RAS.

Global Collaboration Fuels 'Mission Impossible' Success

Ensuring the highest quality is paramount for RAS feeds. Every batch produced at Skretting undergoes meticulous testing, adhering to the company's Nutrace feed-to-food program and meeting even stricter RCX standards. Parameters such as fat leakage, dust, breakage, turbidity, glossiness, and moisture are rigorously checked. This stringent process is vital to prevent organic matter accumulation in the recirculating system, which can escalate water treatment demands and pose significant health risks to fish.

"Producing high-quality RCX feed out of our Skretting Zhuhai factory was mission impossible from the beginning," Jason Yang, General Manager of Skretting China, frankly recalls. "We didn’t have the right equipment. We didn’t know how to formulate, source the right materials, or produce the feed. And this was in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic."

Yang vividly remembers the extensive global collaboration required: "I will never forget all the online calls we had with Skretting colleagues from around the world, crossing multiple functions, continents, and time zones. Step by step, we moved the needles until we finally made it." He emphasized the profound impact of the experience beyond mere production: "The best gift we earned from this experience was not being able to produce Skretting’s RCX feed; it was resolving world class challenges through global collaboration. That’s what defines the Skretting spirit, and what makes us proud.”

Today, Skretting China stands as the undisputed market leader in providing RCX feed to the RAS salmon segment across the nation. "With RAS being the strategic focus of our aquaculture business in China, we confidently expect an acceleration of growth for our RCX feed volume in the next few years,” Yang affirmed, signaling a promising future for high-quality RAS salmon farming in China.

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