IFFO - the Marine Ingredients organisation held day 1 of its Members’ webinar on 20 October 2020, looking at how the marine ingredients industry approaches to sustainability. A core concept to the webinar was adaptation and how the industry will face upcoming challenges.

Resilience

Anne Mette Bæk, IFFO’s President, delivered her address stressing that the marine ingredients industry had been swift to adapt to the pandemic through adjusted protocols. Resilience comes from the industry’s assurances to the value chain through the foundation of a third-party certification programme ensuring the responsible sourcing and production of marine ingredients more than ten years ago. Furthermore the flexibility towards the circular economy underlines this development, she explained, stressing the already important (33%) contribution of by-products to the production of marine ingredients worldwide.

Dialogue

The broader value chain needs to address the challenge of how to feed a growing population. The FAO estimates that the number of undernourished people may well exceed 840 million by 2030, Petter Johannessen, IFFO’s director general, underlined. “It is not time for controversies” he said. “It is time to seek a consensus on where challenges lie and agree that all sustainable solutions are welcomed”. At a time when Covid-19 has brought a formidable reshuffle of the state of the world, there is increasing evidence that a value chain approach is needed, where it is recognised that marine ingredients are strategic in terms of nutritional value, quantity  and predictability.

Engagement with governments is also critical. The case of the NE Atlantic blue whiting fisheries was mentioned during a panel discussion, moderated by Drew Cherry, IntraFish’s Editor in Chief. The panelists argued that an industry led coalition had gathered to address the consequences resulting from disputes between European coastal states but political commitment is critical to move forward.

Climate change

The panelists also agreed that adaptation is needed to tackle challenges related to climate change. “We need institutions that can adapt to change; currently, the fish are adapting quicker than the management systems in place” stated Manuel Barange, Director, Fisheries and Aquaculture at the FAO. This was echoed by Ray Hilborn, Professor at the University of Washington, and Dave Martin, Deputy Division Director of SFP, who stressed that even if they are well managed, the fisheries do fluctuate naturally, more than traditional fish stocks. Conclusions shouldn’t be drawn too quickly in terms of fish stocks and potential switches to non-marine materials: “Environmental trade-offs should be considered carefully” said Dave Martin.

Diversity

With a broad range of species available to meet different needs, Melanie Siggs from the Global Aquaculture Alliance, argued there is a need to determine how to continue harvesting sustainably and where harvests should go for best footprint and nutrition. This was echoed by Mads Martinsen, Skrettings’ Director Product Development (Norway), who emphasized the need for flexibility and independence in terms of ingredients sourcing adapt to resource availability. Mads Martinsen underlined that Skretting Norway will continue to use the same amount of marine ingredients in the future, provided certified as responsibly sourced. As a matter of fact, the use of marine ingredients has been stable for years, but inclusion level has been reduced due to increase in total volume of feed produced.

As all continents, apart from Africa, are expected to see a per capita increase of fish consumption by 2030, there is a clear need to ensure good management of stocks as well as equal distribution and quality of seafood products. By-products were raised by Libby Woodhatch, Executive Chair of MarinTrust as a promising area of growth for the industry, calling for them to no longer be identified as a waste but instead an important resource. “Marine ingredients are a blind spot in the value chain because they are not consumer facing, but it is our role at MarinTrust to provide the information regarding impacts and traceability” she said.

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London, 20 October 2020