Peru’s fishmeal production down 76 percent in 2023, IFFO reports

Global production of fishmeal and fish oil was down 52 percent in July 2023, hurt primarily by a plunge in Peruvian supply due to the cancelation of the country’s anchoveta season.

Peru’s fishmeal production is down 76 percent year over year through July, according to IFFO, The Marine Ingredients Organization, dragging down global cumulative fishmeal production 31 percent year over year.

IFFO reported lower catches in reduction fisheries globally, with the exceptions of Iceland, the North Atlantic, and Africa, but the group placed the reason for the plunge in global production – it was down just 10 percent year over year in 2023 through June  – squarely on Peru’s cancelation of the main anchovy fishing season in the country’s north-central zone in June 2023. Peruvian Production Ministry’s (PRODUCE) said it made the decision to cancel the season to guarantee the sustainability of the biomass.

The closure, and the resulting increase in aquafeed prices, has impacted seafood companies from Norway’s Austevoll Seafood to tilapia producers in China. However, Chinese fishmeal demand is down thus far in 2023, and though local production is also depressed, the country has been able to compensate with imports, IFFO said.

China lifted its final domestic fishing ban – covering areas of the Yellow Sea and East China Sea – on 16 September. Operations in the open fishing grounds have so far provided below par landings, comparable to those reported during the same period last year.

“The current slowdown in fishmeal consumption is likely to be related to the imminent end of the main aquafarming season and to an expected lower-than-average demand of feed from the pig-farming sector,” IFFO said in its monthly update. “Stocks of imported fishmeal are currently reported as being not far from the previous five-year average, as the Chinese traders and end-users have so far managed to navigate through the drop in the Peruvian supply of fishmeal and fish oil by increasing their imports from other origins.”

However, off-takes of imported fishmeal from main ports’ warehouses are below the average of the previous five years, IFFO said.

Global fish oil production was also down 30 percent through July, with Chile the only country to report higher year-over-year totals in the  month, IFFO reported.

Photo courtesy of TASA