The profound importance of the feed conversion ratio

To grow an aquaculture concern efficiently and profitably, the quality of feed and the price point need to be correct, writes Leslie Ter Morshuizen, owner of Aquaculture Solutions.

The output of seafood (both freshwater and marine) from global fisheries stagnated at around 90 million tons a year in the 1990s and, despite heavy investment into technology and subsidies, fishermen are unable to catch more fish. This is simply because the resource is already fully exploited and additional fishing pressure simply reduces the future catch by targeting smaller and smaller fish.

Against this backdrop, the world’s human population has grown from 5,3 billion in 1990 to eight billion in 2022 (World Bank, 2024). Therefore, we require increased tonnages of fish.

The growing shortfall between the stagnant supply of wild fish and increasing demand for fish to eat (and to feed our farmed animals) is the impetus that is pushing the rapid global growth of the aquaculture industry. The graph on the opposite page demonstrates this. Fisheries output has been constrained since 1990, while aquaculture has grown sevenfold over the same period.

About half of the aquaculture output is fish, with the other half being a combination of molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. This rapid increase in fish farming has not been equally distributed across the globe, with Southeast Asia and selected other countries developing massive industries while other parts of the world languish far behind. China farms about 60% of the fish produced globally. Within Africa, Egypt produces more than 1,5 million tons of fish annually (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2024), which is roughly double the rest of the continents’ combined output.

INDUSTRY DOMINANCE