While novel or alternative feed ingredients are showing increasing signs that they will play an important role in aquaculture's future, even executives at some of the largest alternative ingredients firms acknowledge they need to offer more than just lower carbon footprints for them to be realistic, cost-effective options for farmers.

“Companies will not turn to low carbon products just for the sake of it,” Matts Johansen, CEO of Norwegian krill harvester and processor Aker BioMarine CEO, said during a panel discussion at the IntraFish Seafood Investor Forum in May.