Global production volumes of both fishmeal and fish oil are up year over year in 2024, largely due to a successful Peruvian anchovy-fishing season.
According to analysis by IFFO – The Marine Ingredients Organization, global fishmeal production between the months of January and June was up by 40 percent compared to the same period last year. Production of fish oil was also up, rising 10 percent in the same period.
Those increases, IFFO said, were thanks to a successful fishing season in Peru, which has the world's largest anchovy fishery.
Peru’s Production Ministry (PRODUCE) announced in April 2024 that it would open the North-Central zone of its anchovy fishery with a 2.475-million-metric-ton (MT) quota. Catch totals quickly approached that amount, and in just 40 days, the total catch had already exceeded 2 million MT.
That total was a stark contrast to the 2023 fishing season in which PRODUCE canceled the main fishing season in the North-Central zone in order to maintain the sustainability of the anchovy biomass.
Outside of Peru, 2024 supplies of fish used for fishmeal and fish oil are down, according to IFFO. In Chile, landings decreased in the first six months of 2024 in the southern region of the country, while they increased in the north.
In Northern Europe, the volume of raw materials is down due to lower quotas in 2024 compared to 2023. Fishing quotas in the region have continued to cause controversy as coastal states battle over quotas on species like mackerel. The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) recommended a lower quota for the species in 2024, and while some coastal states reached an agreement on the quota, every agreement for over a decade has faced issues.
In the U.S., the catch of menhaden is lower than it was in 2023.
Production has also been slower in China, according to IFFO. The country lifted its fishing ban – an annual moratorium on fishing in its waters – in mid-August, but local producers “remain cautious about domestic potential production levels for 2024,” IFFO said.
On the demand side in China, imports of fishmeal and fish oil through June were down due to weak demand and high production costs, but its pig sector is continuing to recover after a devastating African swine flu pandemic in 2021 caused production to plummet. IFFO said, historically, the pig sector has consumed significant amounts of fishmeal.
IFFO’s data is based on statistics shared by its members, which account for 55 percent of global marine ingredients production across Peru, Chile, Denmark/Norway, Iceland/North Atlantic, U.S., Africa, and Spain.
