Fish as feed inputs for aquaculture: practices, sustainability and implications

18 Fish as feed inputs for aquaculture – Practices, sustainability and implications

3.2.2 Imports

With global fishmeal production being dominated by South American feed fisheries,

most aquaculture producers are net importers. China is the largest consumer of fish

oil, while Chile and Norway use the majority of fishmeal, largely for salmon feed.

As can be seen in Table 10, Asia’s imports are almost double its current production of

fishmeal. While improvements in regional fishmeal processing capacity and efficiency

may result in some increase in production, the anticipated expansion of more intensive

aquaculture will inevitably result in a greater regional dependency on imports.

Europe too is a net importer of fish meal (~1.6 million tonnes) and fish oil (~240 000

tonnes), although this is a rather simplistic interpretation, as there are significant

international product flows based on product specification and price. Norway imports

almost half of total European exports and 52 percent of its requeriments. The United

Kingdom is the largest importer of fishmeal, for which Iceland (22 percent), Norway

(16 percent) and Denmark (12 percent) are the main European sources, and imports

represent around three-quarters of all fishmeal requeriments. South American fishmeal

currently accounts for around 19 percent of the United Kingdom’s imports, but the

amount can vary from year to year and may occasionally increase to around 30 percent.

Norway and Denmark are major European fishmeal producers but also import

64 percent and 41 percent, respectively, of their fishmeal needs. Total fishmeal imports

and consumption are known to have fallen markedly in 2003 and 2004 and are down

18 percent from the preceding years. This is a result of the ban on the use of fishmeal

in ruminant feed.

3.2.3 Exports

Not surprisingly, the Americas (with the exception of Canada) are net exporters of

fishmeal (Tacon, 2009). Peru essentially exports all its production, as it is only a minor

consumer. In contrast Chile, while still a net exporter of fishmeal, has now emerged

as a major importer of fish oil, second only to Norway in terms of total imports. In

addition to consumption of domestically produced fish oil, Chile also imports fish oil

mainly from Peru to meet the demands of its rapidly growing salmonid aquaculture

industry (FAO, 2006a; Mittaine, 2006; Tacon, Hasan and Subasinghe, 2006).

3.3 Utilization of fishmeal and fish oil by aquaculture and other food-

producing industries

3.3.1 Overview

Fishmeal is an important nutritional input into feeds for both fish and terrestrial

livestock. Fishmeal is fed to farm animals not only to improve productivity but also

to protect health and welfare and reduce dependence on antibiotics and other drugs,

TABLE 10

Fishmeal production in the Asia-Pacific region

Country Year Production (tonnes) No. of plants Imports (tonnes)

China 2005 300 000 n/a 1 580 000

Taiwan Province of China 2005 16 100 n/a 220 976

India 2004 182 000 (^18) 20 000–25 000
Myanmar 2005 12 610 14 n/a
Japan 2004 195 000 n/a 402 000
Republic of Korea 2005 45 000 n/a n/a
Thailand 2004 403 000 95 4 800
Viet Nam 2004 80 000 15–20 82 000
Total 1 233 710 2 312 276
n/a: not available
Source: De Silva and Turchini (2009) except for fishmeal production and import data of India which has
been obtained from Ayyappan and Ahamad Ali (2007)