IFFO, the international trade body that represents the marine ingredients industry, has reported total cumulative fishmeal production globally was down slightly in the first seven months of 2022.
However, raw materials usage was 42 percent higher year-over-year in July 2022, revealing stronger demand for fishmeal and fish oil.
The group’s analysis was based on surveys of its membership, which accounts for 55 percent of global marine ingredients production.
Rises in production in the United States, India, Iceland, and Africa did not make up for a drop in Peru’s production, according to IFFO Market Research Director Enrico Bachis. Peru’s fish oil production was is also down thus far in 2022, he said, as was fish oil production in Chile and India, though fish oil production Europe, the U.S., and Africa were up.
“The drop in Peru, both for fishmeal and for fish oil production, is due to a lower quota granted to the North-Center of the country in the last quarter of 2021, which resulted in fewer catches in quarter one 2022,” Bachis said. “Additionally, the total catch in the same area of Peru in the period April to June 2022 was 4 percent smaller with respect to the same period in 2021.”
China’s aquafeed production has than far run higher than 2021, despite a heat wave and subsequent drought that have hurt the country’s aquaculture sector. Bachis reported IFFO believes China’s marine ingredients production and imports will increase in September 2022.
“Currently, domestic production of marine ingredients remains subdued and confined to the south, although activities are expected to pick up in all areas in September,” he said. “Imports of foreign fishmeal have decreased during the first seven months of the year, but important tonnages are expected to reach Chinese shores in the coming weeks.”
However, ongoing COVID-19-related lockdowns across China as a result of the country’s zero-COVID policy “continue to limit consumers’ access to both the retail and the foodservice facilities within the affected areas,” IFFO reported.
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