Global production totals for fishmeal and fish oil thus far in 2021 continue to far surpass the depressed totals from the COVID-19-impacted 2020 fiscal year.
Between January and May 2021, global fishmeal production was up 48 percent and fish oil production was up 51 percent year-over-year, according to IFFO, the Marine Ingredients Organization, a trade group representing the aquafeed industry.
In the organization’s latest market update, it said the growth was mostly due to a “much-improved performance in Peru, with an earlier start of its first fishing season in the north-center of the country.”
“Aside from Peru, Chile and India were the only other countries to report a higher cumulative production over this same period,” IFFO said.
Demand from China – by far the world’s largest importer of fishmeal and fish oil – has increased markedly over 2020, and especially so in the past month, according to IFFO. A lack of materials has resulted in shutdowns or limitations of operations in Shandong, Liaoning, and Zhejiang provinces, even as domestic demand for seafood has exploded since the beginning of the year. Shrimp farmers in southern China are now beginning their second fingerling-stocking period of the year, driving demand and prices for aquafeed higher, though IFFO noted shrimp prices were volatile in June “due fluctuations on the demand side.”
China’s pig-farming sector continues to recover from its disastrous experience with African swine fever over the past year, with stocks up 23 percent year-over-year in May, and the total headcount of pigs in China expected to surpass 400 million sometime this year, bringing the total up to pre-swine fever levels.
“As a consequence, pig feed production continues to grow,” IFFO said.
Photo courtesy of IFFO
