February 21, 2007

Fish industry relying less on fishmeal

Higher prices have reduced the world's aquaculture farms' reliance on fishmeal, a University of Idaho aquaculture expert has told a scientific conference.

During the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in San Francisco about advances in sustainable seafood production, Hardy spoke about advances in reducing fish farming's reliance on fish meal and fish oil.

As fishmeal prices stay high, alternatives such as soy protein concentrate and wheat gluten become increasingly attractive, Hardy said. Also, higher prices for fishmeal would mean more efficiency at recovering protein from seafood processing by-products, much of which is currently discarded.

Aquaculture must find ways to grow beyond fish meal and oil supplies to feed a growing population, Hardy said. Decades of research have shown that proteins derived from grain proteins can provide the ingredients needed in feeds for farmed salmon and trout, he added.

China, which accounts for almost 90 percent of world aquaculture production, bought up a sixth of the 6-plus million tonnes of fishmeal on the world market last year.

China's purchases did a lot to influence prices, said Ronald Hardy, who directs the university's Aquaculture Research Institute in the US state of Idaho,