Einar Wathne, a business advisor at aquaculture and feed firm Norsk Bioakva and an assistant professor within the Norwegian University of Life Sciences’ biosciences department, said he believes fish farmers and investors will soon begin playing a larger role within the fish feed sector.
Wathne, who spoke recently at the IFFO - The Marine Ingredients Organization’s annual conference in Lisbon, Portugal, said that this will occur at the same time scientists and nutritionists will begin playing a lesser role within the industry.
“The science is already there; we have all the research we need,” he said.
More specifically, Wathne said major fish-farming firms like Bakkafrost have already begun to market the attributes of their feed inputs as part of overall marketing claims and campaigns, taking more control over the process internally.
Due to this shift in influence, these farmers might even disrupt the traditional feed supply chain, according to Wathne.
“Producers of feed may rather go straight to the consumer – such as salmon farmers – rather than through ingredient producers,” he said. “Feed ingredient producers will be challenged in adapting to new buying criteria. They’ll be asked whether they are adapting to products fast enough.”
Certification bodies will also be more influential in the feed sector as they gain more influence with consumers, Wathne said.
“They are the ones to convey information to consumers,” he said, adding that consumers are demanding more credentials from seafood products across the board.
“New sustainability criteria come with a price tag, and that cost has to pass through the supply chain to the end user,” he said. “If you can’t defend the cost, that food item won’t have a place in the market for the product.”
Wathne is a former head of Cargill’s aquafeeds division, created after the company bought Norwegian salmon feed company EWOS, of which he was the CEO, for EUR 1.35 billion (USD 1.5 billion at the time).
