1. Kostas Seferis, i2S kostas.seferis@aqua-manager.com
Data science and e-infrastructures can help aquaculture to improve performance and sustainability!
Kostas Seferis, i2S
BlueBRIDGE Workshop
11 January 2017
Brussels, Belgium

2. A few words about the sector
Aquaculture is the fastest growing food industry that now accounts for nearly 50 percent of the world's fish that is used for food.
Global population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 and as populations increase, so too does the need for food.
This need cannot be covered by increase of intensive poultry and swine production or agriculture.
Global production is forecasted to increase from 45 million tons in 2014 to 85 million by 2030
Aquaculture will be the protein provider for the world!
Producers are looking into ways to increase their production in a sustainable way.
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

3. BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium
Needs and challenges
In the next years, the sector will have to produce high quantities of fish in an efficient and environmental friendly way.
Is it easy?
Not at all!
There are a number of challenges that have to be addressed in an integrated way, for all the stakeholders: companies, investors, governments and the academia
11/1/2017
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

4. Challenges for the industry
Improve performance in terms of cost, feed conversion, growth rate and mortality
and at the same time,
Reduce the impact on the environment
Performance improvement and environment protection go hand by hand!
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

5. Challenges for policy makers
Identify the best areas for future development and expansion
Understand the impact of current and future farms on the environment
Develop policies and regulatory frameworks
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

6. Challenges for investors
Where to invest?
Where to achieve the best fish growth and, at the same time, less diseases and mortalities?
What will be the ROI?
What are the environmental conditions in an area?
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

7. Challenges for academia
Develop new growth models
Identify production best practices
Better understand the relationship between environmental and regional data and fish performance
Develop models for the assessment of the environment impact
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

8. BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium
Bluebridge Reply
Bluebridge infrastructure provides a set of innovative e-services to address these challenges.
It benefits all the stakeholders of the aquaculture sector, in an integrated way, using the same infrastructure. It supports
Companies to maximize the growth rate, reduce costs and minimize the impact on the environment
Investors to make efficient identification of strategic locations of interest and select the most profitable investments
Governments and environmental agencies to evaluate the current situation and define policies
Researchers to generate new knowledge and evaluate the practical indicators of aquafarming performance
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

9. And we want to go further…
Have a wider positive impact on the sector
Change the mentality of the companies to be more open and more positive in cooperation and data exchange
Help them to understand the benefits of working together, data exchange and benchmarking
Bring all the stakeholders together, and especially the SMEs (build bridges!)
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

10. BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium
A few words about us
We are the aquaManager team ( one of the leading IT systems for production planning, management, cost analysis and financial forecast for aquaculture. It is used by companies in Europe, Africa, Middle East, USA, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, etc.
We are also an SME (22 people company)
We know the sector, needs and challenges
We have an extensive network of contacts (customers and partners) all over the world. This will help Bluebridge exploitation
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

11. BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium
OK, let’s see a practical example How Bluebridge can help companies to improve?
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

12. How a company can improve?
By optimizing feeding and feed conversion, making best use of the feed +
Reducing mortalities
Improving growth =
better financial performance and less impact on the environment
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

13. How this can be achieved?
It is not only equipment and hardware! Companies need tools that allow them to develop optimized feeding and growth models and do better planning. Especially for SMEs, this is very difficult to be done. They don’t have the necessary resources. This is the objective of BlueEconomy platform: provide to the sector the necessary tools to generate optimized feeding and growth strategies
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

14. This is what our system does
It takes historical data as input, and produces models for feeding, growth and feed conversion.
It provides “what if analysis” i.e. and running multiple production scenarios.
It also supports benchmarking.
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

15. Why through Bluebridge ?
Impossible to develop it from scratch – a big infrastructure is required
Use of cloud and e-services best practices
A new paradigm of work
Infrastructure that allows the platform to scale up (the model generation algorithms are resource intensive)
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

16. Blue Economy - BlueBRIDGE Workshop, Brussels Jan 2017
Provided Services
BlueBRIDGE offers analysis and simulation algorithms to the aquaculture community, through the project infrastructure
Theses services enable companies to:
Calculate performance in terms of main production KPIs
Develop feeding and growth models, based on the realities and the conditions of each company. The result is accurate feeding, better predictions and plans, identification of populations that are not performing well.
Benchmark their performance by comparing their results to “global” models for selected species and regions
Biological FCR – Av.Wt.Cat gr
Blue Economy - BlueBRIDGE Workshop, Brussels Jan 2017

17. UI Example: Model Visualization
Feed Conversion Rate Model
Feeding Model
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

18. UI Example: What-If Analysis
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

19. BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium
It is not only performance analysis! The platform also supports investment evaluation and spatial planning
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

20. BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium
Investment Analysis
BlueBRIDGE builds instruments for estimating of the financial performance of an aquafarming investment.
Follows a cost-based investment analysis methodology for financial analysis
Assumes predefined target production volumes
Utilizes actual growth models
Assumes
Several ownership, operation and production costs (food, labor, deployment, licensing etc)
Financial factors (interest rate, tax rate etc)
Yields:
Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
Cash Flows
and several other financial indicators
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

21. BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium
Spatial Planning
BlueBRIDGE builds an open, spatial planning platform to support intelligent identification of areas to suit various needs: investors seeking maximization of investments, scientists seeking locations of socio-econo-environmental interest, policy makers seeking effects of choices on industry, ...
E.g. a potential investor may use these services to find out
How fast fish grow in the selected area?
Where can fish grow faster ?
What will be the final FCR, Mortality %, Cost, ...?
What are the environmental parameters of a region?
How an area’s economic and social peculiarities affect financial performance?
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium

22. BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium
Thank you
BlueBRIDGE workshop, 11 January 2017, Brussels, Belgium