On its website, I&V BIO announced on 4 January 2022, that its newest Artemia Nauplii Center located in Cox’s Bazar, a center of shrimp farming in Bangladesh will begin to supply live Artemia on a daily basis to hatcheries.
Based in Thailand, I&V BIO was founded in 2012 by Luk Van Nieuwenhove and Frank Indigne, a team with more than 25 years of expertise in aquaculture. The first concept facility began in Chonburi Thailand in 2013. Traditionally, hatcheries buy dry Artemia cysts in cans which have to be hatched, but this hatching procedure requires facilities and is labour intensive. I&V BIO solves this with a revolutionary solution, taking the burden of hatching Artemia away from the shrimp hatcheries. It created Artemia hatching facilities where all the know-how combined with new ideas could produce Artemia nauplii in a professional and industrial way. The result was a pure Artemia nauplii (Instar1) free of shell and other impurities that was undamaged thanks to a patented new technology and free of Vibrio.
The centers deliver daily, live and ready to use Artemia instar1 (INSTART 1) nauplii and enriched Artemia nauplii (INSTART Energy) to hatcheries. Nauplii are packed in 800g trays, equivalent to one can of Artemia at 70% hatching rate. Products are of consistent quality which enables the hatcheries to follow strict biosecurity protocols and relieving them of the burden of hatching Artemia cysts in often sub-optimal conditions.
In 2014, in Thailand, I&V BIO moved to a new and bigger facility in Phang Nga and transformed the Chonburi centre as a testing center. In 2015, in India, it began operations at its state-of-the-art facility in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh which has the same capacity as the Artemia Nauplii Centre in Phang-nga. With this, hatcheries, mainly around Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh have been enjoying the same benefits as hatcheries in Thailand. In India, the Artemia Nauplii Center is operated by I&V Bio India Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of the Geekay group, a market leader in post larvae production in India and I&V BIO group.
Today, it has eight Artemia nauplii centers worldwide and is planning for two more locations. In Asia, there are three centres (2 in Kakinanda and one in Gudur in Andhra Pradesh) in India and one each in Lampung, Indonesia (which started in 2018) , Ninh Thuan, Vietnam and Bangladesh. It opened a center in Ecuador in January 2020 (see below).
Related article: Ready to use live Artemia nauplii supply in India
First Artemia nauplii center in Latin America
In January 2020, I&V BIO announced the first Artemia nauplii center in Latin America and the fifth worldwide. I&V-BIO Ecuador S.A., a joint venture between the CODEMET Group and I&V BIO Group, opened a new, state-of-the-art Artemia Nauplii Centre in Ecuador. In an article published in Hatchery Feed Management, co-owners Nieuwenhove and Indigne, explained that the Artemia consumption in hatcheries is relatively low compared to other shrimp producing countries. One of the reasons is the uncertainty of the bacterial load of the traditionally hatched Artemia cyst. With clean and Vibrio-free nauplii from I&V-BIO at an attractive price, the company expects hatcheries will use more nauplii as it is proven that feeding 100% Artemia nauplii from mysis until PL5 produces bigger and healthier post larvae compared to any other feeding regime.
