January 3, 2014

 

Omega Protein plans to expand sales internationally by 2014

 

 

Omega Protein, US-based fishmeal and fish oil supplier, is aiming to spread its international sales more evenly next year, with its fishmeal sales currently go to its home market of the US as well as overseas to China, Norway, Canada, Chile, Saudi Arabia and Japan.

 

China, as the largest fishmeal market in the world, has been a major focus for the company; but it is now hoping to move away from that emphasis.

 

"We just want to diversify from China, but that means more than just the US; that means all the world marketplaces," Mark Griffin, president of Omega Protein's animal nutrition division, said.

 

Although sales regions fluctuate drastically from year to year, this year was a particularly high year for sales to China, with about half of the company's fishmeal ending up there, said Griffin.

 

China may be the leading market for fishmeal, but global shifts – stemming from an increasing world population of protein consumers – suggest there are likely opportunities opening up everywhere.

 

The aquaculture sector is growing at a rate of 8% to 10% per year and is expected to continue at that rate to the year 2025, and "the supply of nutrient feed inputs will have to grow at a similar rate", according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)'s report "Demand and supply of feed ingredients for farmed fish and crustaceans."

 

According to the report, China was by far the largest producer of fed fish and crustacean species, at 15.7 million tonnes as of 2008. The next in line was India, at 3.08 million tonnes, followed by Vietnam at 2.12 million, Indonesia at 1.65 million, Thailand at 1.03 million, and Norway at 0.84 million.

 

This data has surely shifted in the last five years, with every country likely moving up in consumption, and Omega Protein is poised to discover where those opportunities are as aquaculture production continues to grow.

 

"We still anticipate that we will be selling product into China and probably a significant amount to the extent that we will sell it into the US, we will because it's an easier business [for shipping] for us," Griffin said.

 

The company will try to move "as much fishmeal into the US" as it can while continuing to branch out in other markets, he added. It currently sells several tens of thousands of tonnes of fishmeal per year to China, which is about the same level as its sales volumes to the US.

 

The company's US sales go primarily to animal nutrition, but just 20% of that goes to aquaculture, with the rest used in pig feed diets, pet food and bait.

 

Yet an increased focus on the US will not mean less focus on aquaculture, as the company plans to continue to seek out aquaculture markets in other areas of the world.

 

Meanwhile, in China, the company has in recent years increased its focus on aquaculture from its traditional sector focus, which was a fifty-fifty split between aquaculture and non-aquaculture uses, which were primarily baby pig diets.