By 2030, aquatic food production is forecast to increase by a further 15 percent, mainly by intensifying and expanding sustainable aquaculture production. To be sustainable, aquaculture must become more efficient, produce more with less and reduce its environmental footprint. Two keys to this sustainability are making more efficient use of raw materials and reducing environmental emissions.

Making more efficient use of raw materials

The environmental footprint of farmed seafood protein is mainly driven by the feed and raw materials. The industry has gradually replaced a large proportion of fish meal with soy protein and other vegetable protein meals, and shown flexibility of marine raw material sourcing with a move towards trimmings meals, and today, the aquaculture industry is searching for alternative or novel protein sources to allow greater flexibility in feed formulation. Soy is an indispensable source of digestible protein for humans and animals and as such its growth in demand has increased tenfold in the last 50 years. Part of that growth came from increases of crop and land productivity, but also from converting natural habitats like the Cerrado, the Amazon, the Chaco and even the Great Plains in US to soy production. That has serious environmental impacts on climate, water cycles, greenhouse gas emissions, soil health and biodiversity. Consumers and investors are putting pressure on the food value chain and more specifically the feed and animal production value chains to improve sustainability and reduce the use of deforestation soy.

To mitigate the demand for soy, the feed industry is working on alternative solutions, including greater use of local feed raw materials, upgrading and use of by-products from the food and grain crushing industries and investing in alternative protein technologies such as single cell proteins and insect meal, as well as upgraded vegetable proteins. A key technology that can also increase the efficiency of raw materials is the use of enzymes in feed formulation. Feed enzymes complement the animals' own digestive enzymes to ensure more of the diet is utilized. Enzyme use increases the digestibility of a variety of feed ingredients, reducing the reliance on fishmeal by improving the digestibility of plant-based feed ingredients and enabling greater flexibility in feed formulations. In addition, increased digestibility of the plant raw materials means that the environmental impact of aquaculture is also reduced, particularly with respect to phosphorus and nitrogen emissions.

Reducing environmental emissions

Inland aquaculture represents more than 50% of total production, and farming in earthen ponds remains the most important method, dominated by carp, tilapia, catfish and shrimp. The expansion of land-based aquaculture has resulted in substantial environmental challenges affecting water, soil, biodiversity and climate. Many countries - notably China, the largest inland-aquaculture producer - have restricted the use of land and public waters for this purpose, which constrains expansion. At the same time global demand for salmon pushes marine production towards inland recirculating systems (RAS), offshore and deep sea closed systems due to environmental and health challenges. Regulators, water quality policies and health challenges are also pushing the warm water species sector to move into RAS. Authorities protect against eutrophication and acidification of water bodies by closely monitoring and regulating environmental emissions, such as phosphorus and nitrogen. With a growth in aquaculture production, good water management is crucial to enable sustainable growth in the next decades.

In particular, management of phosphorus and nitrogen emissions is crucial to ensure the industry can grow sustainably. Phosphorus is a finite natural resource, and it is indispensable for agriculture and aquaculture production. It is an essential macro-mineral which has many important functions in the fish and shrimp body. The concentration of inorganic phosphorus in water is very low and in intensive aquaculture it must be supplemented in feeds to meet the optimum requirements for growth and well-being of the animal. Most of the phosphate in aqua feed is bound in a form inaccessible to the animals (phytate-P) and fishmeal alternatives, such as plant-based ingredients have high inclusion levels of phytate-P. This means that there is a potential for phosphorous discharge to the environment, leading to freshwater eutrophication and occurrence of undesirable off-flavors in the fillet.