Umitron has started collaborating with Japan’s leading revolving sushi chain, Kura Sushi, using AI-powered smart feeder UMITRON CELL to realise a sustainable aquaculture industry. Kura ãŠã•ã‹ãª Farm. Inc. pronounced as ‘Kura Osakana Farm, based in Osaka will support aquaculture businesses using Umitron CELL, a smart feeder that utilizes A.I. and IoT technology. Via these technologies, Both aim to address long-standing issues in the industry such as labour shortages, improvements to the working environment and the stable supply of fish.
Kura Osakana Farm is the first company owned by a major kaitenzushi (conveyor-belt sushi) chain that specialises in marine products and is established to create a fully vertically integrated system. By combining cutting-edge technology with Kura Sushi’s excellent know-how of the marine products industry, they have created a sustainable and internationally competitive management model using their own aquaculture production and consignments businesses.
Under this collaboration, Umitron CELL will be installed and utilised by their contract farmers. All of the fish farmed under consignment production will be purchased under a medium and long-term contract and sold at Kura Sushi restaurants. In addition, through a series of initiatives utilising technology, the company aims to promote employment by improving the working environment, revitalizing local areas, and stabilizing farm management operations.
Umitron will contribute by developing technologies catered towards sustainable aquaculture practices and environmentally-conscious site management. Via various local and overseas sales channels, the company will also continue to promote efforts to provide consumers with sustainable seafood options with marine environmental protection and efficient workforce allocation as an underlying focus.
Umitron is currently looking for new partners to import and export fish using Umitron’s technology, and to actively collaborate with overseas retailers and restaurant chains. UMITRON CELL is a smart feeding machine for fish farmers that utilises AI and IoT technologies. It is possible to remotely control feeding while watching real-time video of fish swimming in the fish tank from a smartphone or other device. In addition, AI can judge the appetite of the fish and optimize and control the amount and speed of feeding, thus contributing to the reduction of labor load, optimization of feeding, and the realization of environmentally friendly aquaculture by preventing food from flowing into the sea.
The smart feeder was introduced in Japan and Peru, mainly for fish species such as sea bream, striped horse mackerel, and salmon trout. In a large-scale feed optimization demonstration using the smart feeder, Umitron CELL and Fish Appetite Index (FAI), red sea bream producers fed their cages remotely via smartphone based on analyzed fish appetites and achieved a 20% reduction in feed amounts. In addition to maintaining fish quality, they also hit their targeted harvest size in just ten months instead
of 1 year. The positive results prove that we can still obtain reasonably sized, high-quality fish quickly while taking care of our marine resources by preventing unnecessary feed from being discharged into the environment.
Kura Sushi, Inc. operates revolving sushi restaurants. As of October 28, 2021, there are 569 restaurants (including 33 stores in the U.S. and 41 stores in Taiwan).
