The world’s population is growing at a fast pace, especially in Asia and Africa, generating an increasing need for proteins. Aquaculture contributes more and more to feeding the world’s population with highly nutritious products. To continue facing these needs, aquaculture relies on a good supply of quality feeds that farmed animals would eat in the wild.

For every 1 kg of wild fish used 4.5 kg of farmed fish is produced

The amazing multiplier power of aquaculture enables to produce 4.5kg of farmed fish using 1kg of wild fish. By 2030, global aquaculture production is expected to grow to 109 million tons (FAO, SOFIA 2018), which is up with 21 million tons from 2019. This means that there is an estimated need for aquafeed in the same period close to 38 million tons.

How to secure a sustainable growth of the aquaculture sector?

To face this vital challenge on every continent, the Marine Ingredients Industry is looking at additional marine ingredients which could complement fishmeal and fish oil while securing a sustainable growth of the aquaculture sector. The Marine Ingredients Industry is a vital part of the circular economy with at least 33% of the fishmeal volume coming from byproducts. The fishing fleets, aquaculture industry and processors will play a major role to further develop this supply chain by increasing the share of byproducts that can be secured and used for reduction and processing.

Fisheries Improvement Projects (FIPs) and the development of IFFO RS Improver Programmes are other paths towards a better understanding of local needs and adaptation of management tools according to the expectations of local communities. Progress is monitored and shared. There is a strong drive for certification worldwide and IFFO has committed to facilitating the process for fisheries to engage in a certification or FIP process. The share of the fishmeal and fish oil production worldwide which is IFFO RS certified has already increased from 50% in 2017 to 52% in 2018.

More information is needed to take local needs into account

In some countries, more information is needed to better understand the needs of the local communities and how good fishery management approaches can be adapted to take local needs and characteristics into account. IFFO works as a facilitator to bring all stakeholders together and ensure more collaboration between all stakeholders, from international organisations to local governments, fishermen and NGOs. Together with the Global Aquaculture Alliance, IFFO regularly commissions studies from independent consultancies to fill information gaps, to the benefit of the global industry’s sustainability as was done in 2018/19 in South East Asia and is currently ongoing in West Africa.