36 Fish as feed inputs for aquaculture – Practices, sustainability and implications
2005 (8 555 955 tonnes) was destined for this use, compared with only 0.01 percent
over the period 1991–1995, 0.06 percent over the period 1996–2000, and 0.19 percent
over the period 2001–2004 (Flores-Nava, 2007).
The Peruvian Government is looking to improve national food security through a
greater contribution of small pelagic species such as Peruvian anchovy to direct human
consumption (Sánchez Durand and Gallo Seminario, 2009). In order to increase the
annual per capita fish consumption from 20.8 to 25 kg by 2010, an additional 157 300
tonnes would be required, corresponding to 1.8 percent of the Peruvian anchovy catch
in 2005. Sánchez Durand and Gallo Seminario (2009) projected that the use of these
catches in the production of food for direct human consumption would add significant
value to the resulting products and would increase overall fishery productivity. They
highlighted the sale value of a canned product at US$8 100/tonne against that of
US$440/tonne for fishmeal and also considered that assigning 1 percent of the fish
destined for fishmeal to direct human consumption would generate work for 5 662
people, compared with the 66 positions that are provided by the fishmeal industry.
While some of the European feed-fish species are too small to be used for human
consumption (i.e. sand eel and Norway pout), others show some potential for this
use, specifically blue whiting and capelin. Although small size, poor flesh colour and
high parasite load limit the potential for blue whiting, skinless blue whiting fillets
can be produced from chilled or frozen whole fish for the manufacture of frozen
laminated blocks for finger or portion production. Another possible product form
investigated was blue whiting mince prepared from skinless fillets, which could also
be used to manufacture fish cakes, fish pies and cook-freeze dishes. Uptake of these
new technologies has been slow, and blue whiting is unlikely to become an important
foodfish in the near future. A proportion of capelin is currently used for human
consumption. Around 16 percent of the Icelandic catch in 2005 was frozen whole for
sale in Japanese and East European markets. During the early part of the 2006BOX 1
Benefits of using Chilean jack mackerel for human consumption versus fishmeal
reduction
Bórquez and Hernández (2009) examined the advantages of increasing the volume of
Chilean jack mackerel used for direct human consumption as opposed to its reduction
to fishmeal (currently around 58 percent). They concluded that changing the destination
of jack mackerel from fishmeal to the production of food products for direct human
consumption might have a positive impact. However, at present, from the point of view
of its role in food security and poverty alleviation, the impact of the alternative use of
this resource for human consumption might not be very significant, given that it will not
have a high demand and will be mainly destined for export.Reducing the production of fishmeal will not have a negative impact on national
salmon aquaculture because at present supplies for inclusion in salmonid aquafeeds are
sufficient and there is still a surplus of fishmeal that is generally destined for export.However, there is a socio-economic impact when fishmeal production is reduced to
increase the production of human food products, as the benefit is only translated into an
increase in employment for region VIII of Chile, basically via an increase in the number
of processing plants. A high demand for new processing plants could result in new
investment for construction, but if the existing plants have unused processing capacity,
the benefit will translate into only a small increase in the demand for additional labour.