January 21, 2013 — Salmon are going vegetarian. The favourite fish of the European and US consumer has long been known as a committed carnivore, fed by farmers on processed fish. But a confluence of economics, markets, and environmental factors is transforming the $11bn-a-year farmed salmon industry – and forcing a radical change of diet.
The price of fishmeal has surged to a record high because of a dramatic decline in the number of anchovies harvested off the coast of Latin America, their main feeding ground, partly due to rising sea temperatures.
It hit an all-time high of $2,190 a tonne last month, according to the International Monetary Fund, after Peru, a leading exporter of the commodity, slashed the commercial fishing quota of anchovies 70 per cent in the last three months.
The effort to replace proteins from fish with plants, such as soyabean and sunflower seeds started about 20 years ago, but has accelerated recently as fishmeal prices have risen sharply. They have risen 60 per cent from a year ago and almost 3.5 times in a decade.
Read the full story in the Financial Times