23/01/14: Accessing latest feed products is key to Canada's aquaculture growth

Pamela Parker, executive director
of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association

Below is an extract from a column that was featured in the November/December edition of International Aquafeed written by Pamela Parker, executive director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association.

While other countries have seen their aquaculture industries grow significantly, Canada has not.

The growth of Canada's aquaculture industry has flatlined for the past decade. A complex and outdated regulatory system is viewed as the significant reason for this stagnation. Regulatory restraints facing the industry include the inability to access feed ingredients now commonplace in most jurisdictions.

Canada's farmed seafood sector needs access to the most up-to-date technology in feed and fish health products in order to improve the growth, feed utilisation and disease management in fish which is necessary to be competitive in the world market, and to meet the demands of Canadians for seafood.

Canada's $2.1 billion aquaculture industry employs 15,000 people. Seven companies, operating nine aquaculture feed mills, currently produce aquaculture feed in Canada. Mills in British Columbia, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia annually produce an estimated total of 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of aqua feed per year. By comparison, Norway produces over 1.5 million tonnes of aqua feed per year.
Read the full column on page 11 here.