Saving Seafood

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

New identity for marine ingredients certification program, agenda remains unchanged

April 1, 2020 — MarinTrust is the new name for IFFO RS, the global marine ingredient standard for responsible supply, with the organization wanting the change to emphasize the value of trust for products sourced from certified production facilities, and thereby reinforce the industry’s reputation.

MarinTrust Executive Chair Libby Woodhatch told SeafoodSource that as well as giving the organization a name that can be understood by non-native English-speakers, the change provides some crucial distance between the certification program and IFFO, The Marine Ingredients Organization.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Challenges in Southeast Asia’s fisheries addressed by IFFO, GAA, and SFP in new reports

November 22, 2019 — The Marine Ingredients Organization (IFFO) and the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) have released a full report on Southeast Asian fisheries, containing data not previously released.

In 2017, IFFO and GAA commissioned a study highlighting Southeast Asian fisheries and their fishmeal relevance, producing a final report that was delivered to Fish Matter’s Duncan Leadbitter and published recently. The initial report championed “a requirement for accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date information as being of prime importance to the management of the sustainability of the aquaculture supply chain,” IFFO explained in a press release. Ultimately, the report concluded that “an integrated approach, based on the concept of collaboration” was the best route to positive impact.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

IFFO RS signs agreement with Peru’s Sociedad Nacional de Pesqueria

November 6, 2019 — IFFO RS announced on 5 November that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Sociedad Nacional de Pesquería (SNP) that will complement both organizations.

The memorandum was signed during the IFFO Annual Conference, held in Shanghai, China. The new agreement will have the two organizations “working more closely together,” according to a release by IFFO RS.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

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

Balancing the Needs of People and Marine Ecosystems: Saving Seafood Looks at Aquaculture Sustainability

June 12, 2018 — WASHINGTON — Leading aquaculture experts discuss what sustainability looks like in farmed fishing and how we achieve it in the latest episode of Saving Seafood’s video series, Aquaculture Today. 

“One thing that’s true is the aquaculture industry is here to stay, has a very bright and important future for food security on the planet,” says Corey Peet, Managing Director of the Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative. “But that has to be grounded in an objective view of how do we develop it sustainably.”

According to the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership’s 2017 overview of reduction fisheries – fisheries used for the production of fishmeal and fish oil – just over 83 percent of global catch from reduction fisheries comes from stocks that are reasonably well managed or better. Only an estimated 17 percent of reduction catch comes from poorly managed fisheries.

“20 years ago we were obsessed by this issue of fishmeal sustainability and inputs,” says Dan Lee, Standards Coordinator for the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices Program. “We’ve pretty much solved that and it’s been through economic forces largely.”

According to Manuel Barange, Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the goal of sustainability should not be maintaining the status quo, but ensuring that aquaculture will be able to feed the world’s growing population while protecting marine ecosystems.

“Sustainability means to understand the needs of the people for this generation and in future generations, and therefore how to protect the marine environment and the freshwater environment so that they keep producing,” says Mr. Barange.

Experts also stressed the importance of more data to help fisheries managers make informed decisions about aquaculture, as well as the need for continued industry involvement.

“Fishery management is better the more data we can get, the more accurate modeling that we can get,” says Neil Auchterlonie, Technical Director at IFFO.

“Doing good science, having good industry participation, and recognizing that when there are challenging issues, that collaboration within the industry is probably one of the best ways to solve them,” says Tim Fitzgerald, Director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s Impact Division.

The video is the fourth and final in a series, Aquaculture Today, in which Saving Seafood interviews leading aquaculture experts about advances in farmed fishing and what the industry will look like in the future. Previous episodes of Aquaculture Today covered its role in feeding the world, its efficiency, and the nutritional benefits of omega-3 fatty acids.

Interviews for Aquaculture Today were conducted by Saving Seafood at the 2017 SeaWeb Seafood Summit in Seattle, Washington.

 

‘Extracting Value from the Right Amount of Fish’: Saving Seafood Looks at Aquaculture Efficiency

June 6, 2018 — WASHINGTON — Through new techniques and technologies, farming fish is becoming increasingly efficient, leading aquaculture experts tell Saving Seafood in a new video.

“With a whole range of factors – improved nutritional knowledge, better management techniques of feeding on the farm, and all of that – [the fish in–fish out] ratio has gone down,” says Andrew Jackson, Chairman of IFFO RS.

“For every 0.7 kilos of fish in, you get a kilo of fish out,” says Dan Lee, Standards Coordinator for the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices Program. “So that’s becoming very favorable towards aquaculture productivity.”

In the case of salmon farming, nutritionists are using alternative ingredients, including plant proteins like soy, and mixing canola and other vegetable oils in with pure fish oil. This has helped lowered the percentage of marine ingredients in fish feed to about 25 percent of farmed salmon diets, and projections are that this will drop below 10 percent by 2025.

“They’ve figured out that the key to being successful and profitable and sustainable is not necessarily to catch more fish, it’s to extract as much value as possible out of the right amount of fish,” says Tim Fitzgerald, Director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s Impact Division.

These improvements have made farming fish one of the most sustainable forms of protein production, experts tell Saving Seafood.

“When you’re growing chickens or pigs or cattle, the transformation between the feed and the [farmed product] is much more inefficient than with fish,” says Manuel Barange, Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. “So if we have to feed any animal for us to eat, it makes sense to do that with fish. It’s more efficient.”

The video is the second in a series, Aquaculture Today, in which Saving Seafood interviews leading aquaculture experts on the latest advances in farmed fish, and its role in the world. Saving Seafood released a video yesterday on aquaculture’s role in feeding the world’s growing population.

In addition to Mr. Jackson, Mr. Lee, Mr. Fitzgerald, and Mr. Barange, the video also features Julien Stevens, Researcher at Kampachi Farms, and Neil Auchterlonie, Technical Director at IFFO.

Interviews for Aquaculture Today were conducted by Saving Seafood at the 2017 SeaWeb Seafood Summit in Seattle, Washington.

 

IFFO responds to “unjustified and damaging” criticism of aquaculture’s fishmeal, fish oil use

February 15, 2018 — Fishmeal and fish oil are and will continue to be efficient and sustainable aquaculture feed components if they are responsibly sourced and used strategically, while not using them could compromise fish health and lead to unnecessary waste, IFFO, The Marine Ingredients Organisation has stressed.

In response to an article published by National Geographic, titled “Why salmon eating insects instead of fish is better for environment,” which discusses fishmeal and fish oil replacement in salmon feed, Andrew Mallison, director general of IFFO, said the total replacement of fishmeal and fish oil, as called for in the article, was unjustified and damaging to the fish farming industry.

Mallison said that while IFFO agreed with the need for additional feed options in aquaculture to ensure the growth of “this vital industry,” the article quoted information that was both out-of-date and incorrect.

The improvement in management of wild-capture fisheries has ensured that in recent years stocks are in fact steady and not declining, according to the FAO’s State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2016, he said.

“While catches of some small pelagic species used to produce fishmeal and fish oil are volatile, this is due to environmental fluctuation with permitted catches being varied in line with biomass abundance to protect the stocks. These small pelagic species are often not as palatable, spoil quickly and are less popular compared to other local fish, but can be turned into highly nutritious feed,” Mallison said. “Further evidence of sustainability in the production of marine ingredients is that over 45 percent 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.”

Regarding the efficiency of the use of fishmeal and fish oil, Mallison highlighted that the latest FIFO (fish in: fish out ratios) using 2015 data showed a conversion rate of one kilogram of wild fish used in feed creates 1.22 kilograms of farmed salmon, demonstrating that farmed salmon now produce globally more consumable protein than is used in feed.

Read the full story at Seafood Source