A positive future

by Dr Neil Auchterlonie, Technical Director, IFFO

This will be my last monthly column for International Aquafeed in my role as Technical Director for IFFO as I move on at the end of April.  It has been a great pleasure writing this text every month, and, finishing up, I wanted to look more at aquaculture’s anticipated growth because there is much to be positive about.

One thing that IFFO promotes is a global perspective for the use of marine ingredients, having members in more than 40 countries and markets in many more besides.  That macro-view is crucial in understanding all the systems involved in aquatic animal protein production around the world, and IFFO works closely with organisations such as the FAO that take a similar world view in interpreting the complexities of production and trade.

The FAO biennial reports “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture”, are extremely useful reference documents on the performance of fisheries and aquaculture, since they are based on every individual states’ annual data submissions to the organisation.  We are expecting the next SOFIA report later this year, an event that always comes with some anticipation and excitement. These reports provide an excellent strategic view on global fisheries and aquaculture, which is very useful in taking a look at what the situation may mean in terms of aquaculture growth, aquafeed production and the use of ingredients (e.g. fishmeal and fish oil) over time.

By 2030, global aquaculture production is expected to grow to 109 million tonnes, forming the majority of the increase in growth of seafood production. This figure includes both fed and unfed aquaculture species, and this is an important distinction. International Aquafeed readers will for the most part be interested in the fed species, of course, and it is of great interest that the rate of growth of fed aquaculture species has outpaced that for unfed aquaculture species between 2000 and 2016, covering the period up to the 2018 report.

Read more, HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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