Saving Seafood

IFFO critiques Calysseo’s alternative feed plant: “Innovation doesn’t imply sustainability”

January 13, 2021 — The construction of Calysseo’s new FeedKind alternative protein plant in Chongqing, China, poses no long-term challenge to the fishmeal and fish oil industry, according to the sector’s largest trade group.

Work commenced in early January on Calysseo’s new plant in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing as part of a joint venture between animal feed additives firm Adisseo and protein innovator Calysta. The plant will initially produce 20,000 metric tons of fish-free aqua-feed per year, with more capacity to be added in a second phase of construction. The product is produced from a gas fermentation process involving a naturally occurring bacteria.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Aquafeed producers stress importance of shift toward sustainable supply chain

October 12, 2020 — Major aquaculture operations and retail companies are setting high targets in the next decade to push the industry’s boundaries on sustainability as it relates to novel feed ingredients, energy efficiency and the reduction of carbon emissions, and worker voice and social equity.

In a virtual Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership (GOAL) conference panel on Wednesday, sustainability heads from several companies came together to explain their guidelines, goals, and reasons for focusing on increasing sustainable practices in these key areas.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

IFFO’s Johannessen: Use of marine ingredients in aquafeed “will not decline in the foreseeable future”

September 23, 2020 — IFFO, the international trade body that represents the marine ingredients industry, sees a promising future for itself, even with the rise of alternative, plant- and algae-based aquafeed ingredients.

As part of a new campaign to tell its story to a wider audience, the organization recently relaunched its website and initiated a social media campaign, according to IFFO Director General Petter Johannessen.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New report explores the future of alternative aquafeed ingredients

April 6, 2020 — A new report from Lux Research explores the future of alternative aquafeed ingredients, evaluating insect protein, single-cell protein, and algae protein as potential replacement options in fishmeal.

The FAO estimated in 2018 that aquaculture production would reach 201 million metric tons (MT) by 2030, in line with a 10 percent annual increase in demand for fish protein. However, according to IFFO, global annual fishmeal production from marine organisms – including fish, krill, shellfish, and algae – has remained at 5 million MT in recent years, with one third of the world’s fishmeal production coming courtesy of byproducts from wild-capture fisheries and aquaculture.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Another bumper year coming for seafood M&A after 2019 spend rockets past $5bn

January 15, 2020 — With deals for two massive US seafood firms set to close early this year, there’s a good chance that 2020 will be another bumper year for seafood mergers and acquisitions (M&A), after 2019 saw a surge in both deal values and quantities.

A total of $5.16 billion was spent on seafood mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in 2019, over $1bn more than 2018 ($3.86bn), according to data compiled by Undercurrent News from transactions where the sale value was revealed or could be estimated.

Last year has therefore replaced 2018 as the second-most lucrative year for seafood deals on record, behind only the $5.83bn spent in 2015, driven by the sales of aquafeed giants EWOS Group and Nutreco.

Had the sales of US megafirms American Seafoods Group (ASG) and Bumble Bee Foods been closed before the end of December, last year may even have beaten 2015’s record. ASG is reputedly valued upwards of $1.5bn, and possesses a pollock quota holding of 250,000 metric tons.

As of Nov. 12, 2019, a pollock consortium — comprised of Aleutian Spray Fisheries, Arctic Storm Management Group, Glacier Fish Company and Trident Seafoods — is the frontrunner for ASG’s business, but there still remains a possibility that Bregal Partners, the largest shareholder in the firm, chooses not to sell its stake.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Fish food: Feed, fishmeal sectors saw innovation, volatility in 2019

January 6, 2020 — Aquafeed and its components may not always be the highest-profile segment of the seafood industry, but given that feed is typically farmers’ biggest expense, it’s usually a top concern.

Aquaculture’s growth is spurring concerns about the use of forage fish to produce fishmeal and fish oil and encouraging the development of alternative ingredients rich in protein and omega-3 fatty acids. This drove rapid innovation in the feed sector in 2019 as entrepreneurs and established players sought to cash in on the sector’s promise.

Undercurrent News was the first to report on many of these developments, which you can review in our recap below:

January

The fishmeal markets began 2019 on a bearish note as global supplies got a boost amid strong anchovy landings in Peru even though fishmeal stockpiles in China saw lower demand due to an outbreak of African swine fever. Sources told Undercurrent that Peruvian superprime fishmeal prices, ex-warehouse, Shanghai, China, averaged CNY 10,700 per metric ton ($1,566/t) in January, down CNY 1,200/t from mid-October 2018

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

European seafood sector fights back against claims of IUU-tainted fishmeal

October 16, 2019 — NGOs and retailers are seeking to distance themselves this week from a new report prepared by the Dutch-based Changing Markets Foundation, which claims to have found links between them and unsustainable fishing operations in Africa and Asian countries that supply feed ingredients for aquaculture.

Changing Markets undertook a comprehensive mapping exercise of fishmeal and fish oil supply chains from sea to plate, which is set out in the report “Fishing for Catastrophe.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

IFFO head: Aquaculture growth portends bright future for marine ingredients industry

September 27, 2019 — A veteran of Cargill’s aquafeed trading wing, Petter M. Johannessen last year took over as director general of IFFO, which represents global fishmeal and fish oil producers and their trade associates. The London, United Kingdom-based organization will hold its 59th annual conference on 4 to 6 November, 2019, in Shanghai, China, at a time of rising Chinese demand for feed inputs, but also increased interest in alternatives to fishmeal and fish oil. Johannessen spoke to SeafoodSource about preparations for the Shanghai meeting, and more broadly, the state of the industry.

SeafoodSource: What are the priorities for the upcoming IFFO annual conference in Shanghai?

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Study questions sustainability of plant-based aquafeed

April 9, 2019 — A new study by researchers at the University of Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture concludes that there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift in the definition of sustainable shrimp feed.

The global farmed shrimp industry has an estimated production volume around four million metric tons (MT), and has become one of the biggest consumers of fishmeal in the aquaculture sector. This has put pressure on aquafeed manufacturers to find suitable alternative ingredients that do not affect the health or growth rates of the shrimp.

However, substituting in plant-based alternatives to fishmeal may not be the panacea that ecological campaigners are counting on, according to the recently published research.

“The Sustainability Conundrum of Fishmeal Substitution by Plant Ingredients in Shrimp Feeds,” by Wesley Malcorps, models the effects of decreasing the inclusion of fishmeal in commercial diets.

“As demand for shrimp feed increases, feed manufacturers are shifting towards crop-based ingredients, in a move that is mainly driven by economic incentives. This is evidenced by looking at the relative price of fishmeal compared to common plant ingredients such as soy protein concentrate, cereal, and wheat gluten. Some consider the move to be a sustainable transition, as it reduces the dependency on a finite marine resource,” Malcorps told SeafoodSource. “However, a change in ingredients would shift resource demand from the oceans onto the land and could affect the nutritional value of shrimp.”

His team set out to model incremental fishmeal substitution by plant ingredients in feed for giant tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon) and whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). The models were used to assess the consequent impact on marine and terrestrial resources such as fish, land, fresh water, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fishmeal-free info deemed misleading and misguided

October 6, 2017 — A competition established to inspire the increased use of alternative ingredients to fishmeal in aquafeeds has been lambasted for “the organisers’ use of negative messaging, exaggeration and misinformation in relation to marine ingredients”.

The winners of the fishmeal-free feed (F3) challenge were announced in Dublin yesterday. However, a statement from IFFO, the marine ingredients organization, – while congratulating the winners – laments that: “Unfortunately, the F3 Challenge organisers have refused our offers to enter into dialogue or meet and provide up-to-date facts, instead choosing to seek publicity through a number of misleading or false statements.”

IFFO rubbishes claims that marine ingredients are not sustainable by pointing to the fact that “over 45% of the global production of fishmeal and fish oil is now independently certified as being safe and environmentally responsible, including in its sourcing of raw materials, a figure that far exceeds any other source of feed ingredient”.

Read the full story at The Fish Site