The NTT Group is pursuing large-scale land-based aquaculture. NTT Green & Food, a joint venture between Regional Fish, which is developing genome-edited fish, and NTT, has constructed a large-scale land-based aquaculture facility with an annual production capacity of more than 110 tons in Iwata City, Shizuoka Prefecture. The completion ceremony was held on December 3 and shipments will begin within this fiscal year. The company, established in July 2023, is carrying out land-based aquaculture using AI and genome editing technologies. The farm in Iwata City, on the site of a former factory of the automobile manufacturer Suzuki, is scheduled to cultivate whiteleg shrimp. Regional Fish has been developing the biofloc fish culture system, which does not circulate water but maintains its cleanliness by floating microbial clumps on the water. Regional Fish is also developing whiteleg shrimp compatible with biofloc aquaculture using genome-editing technology. (Shizuoka Shimbun 2024/12/4)

NTT Green & Food will also build a land-based aquaculture facility in Kesennuma City, which was hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The facility will be located in the Koizumi area of Kesennuma City and is aiming to start operation in 2026. Kesennuma City has positioned the project as part of the Kesennuma City Reconstruction Promotion Plan. (Kahoku Shimpo Online Edition 2024/11/7)

NTT Communications is also working on land-based aquaculture. NTT Aqua, a subsidiary for the purpose of developing and providing land-based aquaculture systems, has been established and started operations on December 2. NTT Aqua has signed a comprehensive partnership agreement with the Okinawan company Akajin, which has its own filtration technology, and plans to expand this Okinawan onshore aquaculture system nationwide. Since September 2023, the two companies have been conducting research on the cultivation of the leopard coralgrouper (Plectropomus leopardus) and redspotted grouper (Epinephelus akaara). (Okinawa Times 2024/12/3)

Overseas, AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. announced on December 12 that it would cease production of the genetically modified salmon which it developed, farmed, and sold, and close its last facility in Prince Edward Island, Canada. This means genetically modified salmon would disappear altogether. The company said it no longer had the money to maintain the farm and CEO David Fortune resigned. The announcement came weeks after the Canadian federal and Prince Edward Island governments announced additional funding of over $230,000 for the company.
(CBAN 2024/12/12)

On December 3, the Consumer Affairs Agency released the results of its annual opinion survey on food labeling. When asked whether they refer to the content of labels regarding genetically modified foods when purchasing food, 38.0% said they did. However, only about 10% of people responded that they understood the content of labels on genetically modified foods that contained information such as "unsegregated" or "Identity Preserved Handling," indicating that most people do not understand the changes in the labeling system for genetically modified foods. Regarding genome-edited foods, only 6.1% said they knew what they are. The number of people who answered, "I've never heard of it and I don't know what it is." reached 50.8%. When asked about genome-edited food labeling, of respondents who said they knew about it and those who said they had heard of it but did not know what it was, 55.7% said they wanted it to be labeled.

On November 7, Gryllus, a Tokushima University venture company that promoted the eating of insects, filed for bankruptcy with the Tokushima District Court and went bankrupt. Its debts amount to about 150 million yen. Insect-eating has not been accepted by the public, and there has been a series of bankruptcies and financial difficulties, including the bankruptcy of the Sapporo company Indeeru.
(Tokushima Shimbun 2024/11/21)

Meiji Holdings, a subsidiary of Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd. which manufacture and sell replicon vaccines for the novel coronavirus, and Meiji Seika Co., Ltd, has announced a partnership with Kobe University venture company Synplogen and three U.S. biotech companies to accelerate biotechnology applications in the food industry. Synplogen has the technology to produce long-chain DNA at low cost through artificial DNA synthesis.
(Nikkei Biotech Online Edition 2024/12/9)