The world’s largest salmon producers must adjust feed practices to reduce dependence on wild-caught fish, or expose themselves and their investors to multiple risks, says investor network FAIRR’s latest report.
The findings are based on FAIRR’s third and final sustainable aquaculture engagement, which focuses on how salmon producers can lessen their reliance on this “limited resource” to safeguard against financial consequences.
Global salmon production has doubled over the last 20-plus years, with the bulk of that growth due to aquaculture operations producing farmed fish (versus those caught in the wild). But the usual feed sources for farmed salmon—which are typically fed fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) derived from wild-caught fish—is putting pressure on fish stocks.
As FAIRR notes in its report, “If this pressure on fish stocks continues, the availability of fish-based feed ingredients may become increasingly limited, leading to higher and more volatile farmed salmon production costs, with the potential to directly impact profitability.”
For investors this could lead to operational, reputational, and regulatory risks such as disease, a loss of public trust, and higher costs to comply with sustainability measures.
FAIRR’s assessment worked with seven of the 10 largest publicly listed salmon farming companies: Bakkafrost (Faroe Islands), Grieg Seafood (Norway), Lerøy Seafood (Norway), Mowi (Norway), Multi X (Chile), SalMar (Norway), and Salmones Camanchaca (Chile).
‘No single novel alternative feed ingredient has emerged’
A key tactic to reducing dependence on wild-caught fish is to diversify feed ingredients. Soy, for example, has been used to replace fishmeal for a few decades, though companies in the assessment claim fish oil is much harder to replace.
According to FAIRR’s report, these companies have employed a handful of “novel alternative ingredients” that include insect meal, single-cell proteins (from algae, bacteria, or fungi), and plant-based ingredients such as pea proteins and oilseeds that have been genetically modified to include omega-3 and other nutrients.
Thus far, however, “no single novel alternative feed ingredient has emerged that could fully replace FMFO,” notes FAIRR. Each of these novel ingredients has trade-offs from price and scalability barriers to consumer acceptance issues.
For example, four companies noted the “high cost and low volume” of insect meal, which in 2023 was almost triple the price of fishmeal ($3,800-$6,000/ton versus $$1,815/ton) and 10 times the cost of soybean meal $541/ton).
Elsewhere, four companies pointed out that some plant-based ingredients are linked to higher emissions than FMFO, which would harm these companies’ sustainability commitments.
Nutrition of these novel alternative ingredients is a concern cited by all companies in the engagement; algae oil showed the most promise in this respect as a replacement ingredient.
One company also noted that the burden of finding alternatives should rest with feed producers, not salmon producers, as just two of the seven companies engaged actually produce their own feed.
Just three companies of the seven have actually set targets to increase their use of novel ingredients, according to the report:
“Mowi aims to increase its share to 10%-15% by 2025, while Grieg Seafood aims to make novel alternative ingredients at least 5% of its feed by 2030. Lerøy Seafood aims to increase its use of such ingredients progressively, targeting a 10% share of feed by 2030.”
Companies also use trimmings—byproducts from fish processing—in FMFO, deriving between 25% and 50% of FMFO from these trimmings, says FAIRR.
Questions remain as to how much of these trimmings companies can use before they have to once again rely on wild-caught fish.
More research and development needed
The bottom line, for this report at least, is that novel alternative ingredients have not yet gained the traction hoped for when FAIRR began its sustainable aquaculture engagement in 2020.
“No company has clearly identified alternative ingredients that can replace FMFO at scale, without trade-offs on aspects such as cost, scalability, nutritional quality, carbon footprint or consumer acceptance,” notes the report.
Investors should encourage salmon producers to prioritize research and investment into novel feed ingredients and techniques, include more plant-based ingredients, and promote better consumer awareness, among other things, says FAIRR.
Laure Boissat, oceans program manager at FAIRR, added that “the salmon industry’s reliance on wild-caught fish for feed will continue to cause cost volatility in the near and mid-term as production scales, but feed supply remains constrained.
“Without urgent investment in sustainable feed ingredient alternatives, this increased competition for limited natural resources puts profitability and resilience at risk.”
