SyAqua has its roots steeped in history with more than forty years of genetic improvement using quantitative genetics. It was the first company to apply Molecular Biology to the development of shrimp.

Our history begins with the innovative foresight of Mr. Frederick Gonnerman Dalgety in 1883, a young Australian who began international trading agricultural products between England and Australia.

Initially Mr Dalgety tried his hand at gold prospecting but quickly recognised his fortunes lay in trading with the prospectors. From humble beginnings as an agricultural trader, the Dalgety group was founded and grew through generations of the Dalgety family to become one of the worlds largest conglomerates in the 1970’s. Trading in lumber, zinc, grains, spices, food ingredients and more importantly animals.

In 1960, PIC, a swine genetics company, was founded by Mr. Ken Woolley. A farmer in Englands Oxfordshire countryside. Dalgety and PIC joined forces in 1974 to expand the concept of improving performance of animals using Quantitative Genetics and Health management, across the globe.

In the early 1990’s, with laboratories in Cambridge (England) and animal facilities near Oxford (England), research and development breakthroughs led the group to add molecular biology and genomics to its commercial quantitative genetics approach to animal breeding. Innovative application of these new sciences led to dramatic improvements to farmed animal performances.

In the late 1990’s the Dalgety group was rationalized and the Sygen group formed out of the biotechnology and animal breeding components of the Dalgety group of companies, including the molecular biology laboratories in Cambridge and the swine genetics companies of the PIC group across the world. The new group was quoted on the London Stock Exchange attracting considerable investor interest.

Sygen opened its molecular biology laboratories in Berkeley, California, USA in 1999 and dedicated itself to improve the performance of farmed animals even further, continuing to leverage its technologies and its breeding programs using Quantitative Genetics, Health management and increasingly Molecular Biology techniques.The breakthroughs were such that the new approaches in research and development could be applied to many species.

The shrimp species was chosen by the Sygen group as it lends itself readily to rapid genetic improvement.

A visionary, five year, $16 million project was launched in Hawaii, 2001 to develop lines and cultivation techniques..

Sygens Shrimp research facility was founded early in 2000 and the laboratories in Berkeley expanded. SyAqua division was formed in 2002 to develop a route to market and allow shrimp farmers access to the improved lines. SyAqua became established with companies in Mexico, Brazil and Thailand as well as sales and consultancy to other shrimp producing countries around the globe. Laboratories were constructed in Kentucky, USA to work with new experimental lines.

In 2003 SyAqua entered the Asian market and opened laboratories and production facilities in Thailand. A careful introduction of the SyAqua's improved lines were imported into Thailand to populate the Asian Genetic Nucleus unit from both the Hawaiian and Kentucky breeding programs to further develop the lines specifically for the Asian environment.

December 2005, SyAqua was purchased as part of the Sygen group by a U.K. PLC specializing in cattle breeding however their strategy focused on traditional large farm animals. By Mid of 2006 SyAqua management saw the opportunity to spin off the aquaculture division as a stand alone entity which led a series of successful Management buyouts.

The new SyAqua group continues to thrive utilizing and developing its core strengths in breeding programs using Quantitative Genetics, Health Management, Molecular Biology and Production Techniques with the objective to improve the profitability and stability for farmers and enable the processors to access quality raw materials. With research operations, laboratories, genetic nucleus units, broodstock mulitpiers, production facilities and customers spread across three continents SyAqua is well positioned to continue to improve the performance of shrimp for the benefit of farmers and processors across the globe. Its mission: to deliver genetic improvement to the shrimp industry.

SyAqua supplies products and services to: Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.