Accounting for roughly 50% of global output of marine ingredients, IFFO reports that fish oil production for the first eleven months of 2022 was up on the same period in the preceding year, while fishmeal production has been down.
Producers in European countries, India, the USA as well as South Africa, Ivory Coast and Mauritius reported a year-over-year increase of fish oil, while the drop in fishmeal production is attributed to the late start of the second 2022 fishing season in Peru.
The USA, India, the Iceland/North Atlantic area and the African countries were the regions considered that have increased their cumulative production with respect to the same period in 2021.
By December last year, Peruvian catches were in line with those reported in December 2021, so the deficit of around 1.150 million tonnes of raw material reported until November 2022 vs January-November 2021 has not been reduced in Peru, negatively affecting the overall performance for the year 2022.
Production of marine ingredients in China has been subdued, with a lower production total than in 2021 and conditions look to be largely similar for 2023.
Aquafeed production in 2022 was reported over 23 million tonnes, a slight increase year-on-year. January and February are traditionally off-season for the aquaculture, as temperatures are low and national holidays kick in. Therefore, fishmeal demand from the aquafeed sector remains limited. The beginning of the year is usually the time when aquafeed producers stock feed ingredients in view of the new aquafarming season starting in March-April.
There was a decline in pig and pork prices declining in 2022 due to oversupply and weakened demand. 2023 has so far been much the same, as the massive Covid contagion has greatly affected foodservices, the main consumer of pork products. Sow stock remains high, with a potential increase in piglet production, which would play in favour of pigfeed demand, resulting in turn in higher fishmeal consumption.
