The FAIRR Initiative’s latest analysis determined seven of the world’s largest salmon-farming companies are facing a “critical constraint,” as overreliance on declining wild-caught sources for fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) are hampering growth, making it imperative that producers diversify feed sources and product portfolios.
The global investor network’s recent study, “De-risking Salmon Feed: The Wild-Caught Fish Dilemma,” was released ahead of the 2025 UN Ocean Conference in France after a four-year engagement with producers Bakkafrost, Grieg Seafood, Lerøy Seafood, Mowi, Multi X, SalMar, and Salmones Camanchaca.
The report predicts that with farmed salmon production predicted to grow 40 percent by 2033 and with nearly 90 percent of wild fish stocks already overexploited or fully exploited, the industry will face intensifying pressure to secure sustainable feed sources. Additionally, weather patterns and climate change could also reduce the availability of fish stocks and, therefore, increase FMFO price volatility.
FAIRR said companies’ dependency on a limited and increasingly strained resource exposes investors to material supply chain risks that could undermine long-term growth and profitability.
Following the release of the analysis, FAIRR’s Oceans Program Manager Laure Boissat told SeafoodSource that in addition to this “very real operational risk” of not having enough input for salmon feed, there are also regulatory and reputational risks associated with feeding wild-caught fish to farmed fish.
“There may be sourcing restrictions on forage fish, limiting the supply available to producers,” she said. “Furthermore, feeding millions of tons of FMFO to farmed animals when these could be consumed by people is wasteful and raises concerns about food security – especially as 90 percent of fish used in FMFO could be used for food.”
She also highlighted that during the cancellation of Peru’s first anchovy fishing season in 2023, fish oil prices reached USD 9,200 (EUR 8,077) per metric ton (MT) in November 2023, a 107 percent year-over-year increase.
“This event exemplified the clear risk for producers and investors that the salmon industry relies on a finite resource, which leads to high price volatility. To mitigate this risk, diversifying ingredients away from FMFO is highly needed – prioritizing plant-based ingredients in order to limit pressure on marine resources,” Boissat said.
FAIRR isn’t alone in its call for industry to take more ownership of the issue, with a similar plea made by Pew Charitable Trusts at the recent 2025 Seafood Expo Global event in Barcelona, Spain.
Boissat said one of the obstacles to establishing alternatives to wild-caught feed sources – such as algal oils or insect proteins – is the lack of any clear “winner” that can replace FMFO at scale. Salmon companies told FAIRR during meetings that they have trialed a range of novel feed ingredients, without determining any clear replacement.
Of the seven salmon companies FAIRR worked with, five regard algal oil as promising because of its omega-3-rich content, while four of them consider insect meal to not be a sustainable solution to replace fishmeal.
There are, Boissat said, multiple barriers preventing the use of these novel feed ingredients at scale: price, nutritional content, higher carbon footprint, and consumer acceptance.
For algal oil specifically, the main barrier to adoption has been its price. There was a larger adoption of algal oil when fish oil prices were extremely high, following the 2023 closure of the Peruvian anchovy fishery. However, as Peru lifted its fishing ban in 2024, fish oil prices dropped, and algal oil prices were no longer on par with fish oil prices.
Meanwhile, for insect meal, barriers to adoption include high prices and low volumes and the higher environmental impact of insect farming. Boissat also pointed to recent research that found insect meal has a higher carbon footprint than fishmeal and plant-based ingredients, saying these contradict earlier expectations around the industry’s sustainability.
Furthermore, with engaged companies stating in their public disclosures that they want to increase their use of fish trimmings in their feeds, FAIRR didn’t receive a clear answer from any of them or their investors on how much more trimmings would be available.
“One company even acknowledged purchasing all trimmings available in the location it operates in – which leaves doubt as to how it could increase the inclusion of trimmings in its feed,” she said.
The issue creates a paradox, according to Boissat.
Utilizing trimmings and byproducts can’t be a solution to the problem as there’s a limited supply, but the only way to increase that supply of trimmings is to increase the amount of fishing products supplying those trimmings, defeating the purpose of utilizing byproducts in the first place.
“This paradox is exemplified in Lerøy Seafood’s disclosures: The company requires its raw materials to come from an ‘ever-increasing share of trimmings’ while recognizing that trimmings are a ‘limited commodity.’ These contradictory statements show that companies cannot solely rely on trimmings to have a so-called sustainable feed,” Boissat said.
To-date, there’s been very little target-setting made on utilizing alternative feed ingredients; of the seven salmon companies assessed by FAIRR, just three have stated targets.
“Investors could carry on engaging bilaterally with salmon producers and remind them that diversifying feed sources is not a ‘nice-to-have' but an imperative to protect their businesses. Investors could also directly support the research and development efforts to encourage the scale up of truly sustainable feed solutions,” she said.
Boissat highlighted the F3 Fish-Free Feed Challenge as “an exciting initiative,” with its overriding aim to speed up the commercialization of aquaculture feed ingredients that can replace wild-caught fish.
Investors could, for instance, support the prize given to the winner of this challenge, Boissat suggested. At the same time, she said they could ask companies to consider forage fish availability in their risk assessments and reporting, demanding that companies formalize targets on reducing the absolute use of wild-caught fish in feed and prioritize research and investment in novel alternative feed ingredients and technologies.
For FAIRR, its report marks the final phase of its investor engagement on the topic of salmon feed, as it’s now focusing on creating a benchmark of 20 seafood and aquaculture companies, assessed according to various sustainability criteria. This new Coller FAIRR Seafood Index will look at feed strategies, as well as other pressing factors for the salmon industry – such as poor animal welfare practices and sea lice management.
