It is found that soybean meal has increasingly become a key ingredient in fish feeds as the aquaculture industry struggles to meet global demand for its products. Bill Coppess, USB director and a soybean farmer from Ansonia, Ohio, told that as the fish meal is getting scarce and more costly it creates a new market opportunity for more soybean meal to be used as a protein source in fish and shrimp diets.
It is fact that aquaculture represents great potential for soybean meal, because aquaculture is the fastest-growing animal-food-producing sector, consuming soybean meal from over 250 million bushels of soybeans. Karen Fear, USB director and a soybean farmer from Montpelier, Indiana, informed that crustaceans represent about 4 percent of aquaculture products worldwide, but represent about 20 percent of the value.
According to Fear this is the reason that the soybean checkoff is working with shrimp farmers around the world to find ways for more soy to be used in shrimp diets. Neil Sims, president of the Hawaiian-based company that grows high-end Kona Kampachi, told that if 50 per cent of the global expansion in aquaculture is high-end fish and 50 per cent of their feed inclusion is soy that could mean another $7.5 billion worth of soy going to aquaculture.
