The Future of Fish Feed, or F3, has launched its latest marine ingredient challenge designed around finding replacements for marine ingredients in fish feed.
The F3 challenge has been running since 2015, and challenges its participants to develop and test an aquaculture feed manufactured without marine ingredients. Past winners of the prize include Brazil-based BRF Ingredients, Veramaris, Star Milling Co., Empagran, and more.
“By incentivizing farms to innovate, the F3 Fish Farm Challenge reduces pressure on wild fish stocks while building a more resilient and sustainable farmed seafood system for the future,” F3 Judge and University of Arizona Professor Kevin Fitzsimmons said. “Amid growing supply chain uncertainties, this contest offers an opportunity to future-proof farm operations by developing strong, sustainable feed contingency plans.”
The challenge has varying goals depending on the edition, with the most-recent contest seeking a replacement for krill in aquaculture feeds. The recently-launched edition will hand out USD 200,000 (EUR 170,000) in prizes to four top-performing farms in two contest tracks: A two-year contest rewarding farms that produce and sell carnivorous finfish that were raised on feeds free of marine animal ingredients, and a four-year contest for farms using new feed and farming innovations on raising slower-growing finfish species.
Registration for the contest opened 16 September, and to qualify farmers must use marine animal free diets beginning no later than the fingerling stage.
The F3 challenge said disruptive events like the cancellation of the Peruvian anchoveta fishery in 2023 – which drastically reduced marine ingredient availability and caused shortages of aquaculture feed – emphasize the need for ingredient alternatives as aquaculture continues to grow worldwide.
“Reliance on wild-caught marine-animal ingredients is a weak link in the aquaculture supply chain, putting its growth and global seafood security at risk, while also affecting vital marine ecosystems,” F3 said. “By incentivizing the development and adoption of nutritionally equivalent alternatives, the Challenge helps accelerate industry change toward more resilient, diversified, and environmentally responsible seafood production.”
