90 Fish as feed inputs for aquaculture – Practices, sustainability and implications
ten years in feeds used in Asian aquaculture and are believed to be attainable through
better formulations and improved feed management. Accordingly, in spite of envisaged
increases in production, by 2010 the quantity of fishmeal used in compounded feeds in
Asian aquaculture is expected to decrease, in terms of percent inclusion in feeds, from
the current levels (Figure 13).
In the present analysis, fishmeal usage in the Asia-Pacific region was estimated at
1.427 millon and 2.388 millon tonnes in the years 2000 and 2004, respectively^3. In this
context, the estimates of the present study for fishmeal use in aquaculture appear to
be more realistic. More recently, Merican (2006) estimated the feed requirement for
shrimp and freshwater fish culture in six Asian countries (Indonesia, India, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam) in 2005 at 2.385 millon tonnes. Assuming
the mean protein content to be 65 percent and that 35 percent of the protein is from
fishmeal, the total fishmeal requirement is 542 547 tonnes.4.4 Fishmeal requirements for compounded feeds in Asian aquaculture
Estimates for raw material are computed based on the fishmeal requirements of Asian
aquaculture. In this computation, the conversion rate of the raw material (essentially
trash fish/low-value fish) is adjusted based on the envisaged increased efficiencies in
conversion (details are given in Table 9). Based on the estimates presented in Table 9,
by 2010 the raw material required for fish feeds using fishmeal in aquaculture will be
at least 6.999 million tonnes and at most 8.762 million tonnes. Considering that in 2004
nearly 10 million tonnes of raw material were required to sustain Asian aquaculture
production, the scenario is an optimistic one.(^3) Sugiyama, Staples and Funge-Smith (2004) estimated the fishmeal usage in Asia and the Pacific to be
3 726 591 tonnes in 2001. However, it is unclear whether this amount referred to use in aquaculture or
the total use.
TABLE 8
Estimated amounts of fishmeal used in Asian fish feeds
Species group
Criteria used 1990–2004 Estimated fishmeal usage (tonnes)
Feed usage
(%)
Fishmeal
(%) CE
* 1990 2000 2004
Crustaceans 100 25 1.7 262 727 698 855 1 418 951
Marine fish 50 45 1.5 190 542 390 461 554 920
Milkfish 100 12 1.6 76 713 82 488 98 813
Anguillidae 100 50 1.4 114 200 152 625 166 956
Catfishes 80 3 1.4 3 140 5 727 11 344
Cichlidae 85 7 1.4 27 985 97 783 137 074
Total 675 307 1 427 939 2 388 058
Estimates for 2010 Estimated fishmeal usage (tonnes)
Species group Feed usage (%) Fishmeal (%) CE 10%** 15% 20%
Crustaceans 100 20 1.5 1 101 773 1 151 853 1 202 934
Marine fish 70 40 1.3 658 341 688 265 718 190
Milkfish 100 5 1.4 39 628 41 934 43 231
Anguillidae 100 40 1.2 125 933 129 257 137 381
Catfishes 80 4 1.3 7 724 8 076 8 427
Cichlidae 90 4 1.2 66 467 77 176 80 566
Total 1 999 866 2 096 561 2 190 729
*All marine species as per Table 7.
Production based on formulated feeds.
*Percent content of fishmeal in feed.
* CE = conversion efficiency (kg of dry feed required to produce 1.0 kg of fresh fish).
Fishmeal use estimated using the production figure of Table 7.
**Increase in production, in percent, for the period 2004–2010.
Source: Fishmeal use in feeds for species groups are based on averages derived from the literature and also used by
De Silva and Hasan (2007)