August 30, 2010

Aquaculture feed a potential market for US soy

Farm-raised aquaculture represents another growing market for US soy farmers, with the greatest demand currently rests in the China freshwater sector, said Joe Meyer, director of the United Soybean Board.

Estimates show the Chinese aquaculture industry, which produces 63% of global aquaculture, uses up to 6.5 million tonnes of soy to feed fish, equivalent to 239 million bushels of soy.

Global demand for seafood continues to increase, with the US consuming about US$15 billion worth of seafood annually.

At the same time, the wild catch of fish in US lakes and seas continues to level off or decrease.

Meyer points out that this means less fishmeal to use as fish feed. Therefore, a promising opportunity for including soy in aquaculture feed exists now and in the future.

While the bulk of the soy-in-aquaculture efforts come in international markets, the use of soy in fish farming represents a potentially growing market in the US as well.

The soybean checkoff reports that in 2008, domestic aquaculture used about 210,000 tonnes of soymeal or over 7.7 million bushels of soy.

Meyer concludes that while this represents only 1% of domestic soymeal use, it does represent an exciting new and growing market.