Impact of Rising Feed Ingredient Prices on Aquafeeds and Aquaculture Production

The present technical paper investigates and evaluates the underlying reasons for the recent dramatic rise in prices of many of the commodities used in aquafeed production and its consequences for the aquafeed industry, and in particular, on demand and expectations from aquaculture in securing current and future fish supplies with particular reference to Asia and Europe. Due to the increasing prices of ingredients, aquafeed prices, especially the prices of compound aquafeeds, may increase further and a shortfall in the local supplies will compel importation of aquafeeds. Of the ingredients, fishmeal and fish oil are highly favoured for aquafeeds; aquafeed production is under increasing pressure due to limited supplies and increasing price of fishmeal and fish oil and this review also outlines initiatives that are searching for substitutes for fishmeal and fish oil so as to position the industry to meet the challenge of securing aquafeed for sustaining aquaculture.