Wednesday, Sept. 30, 5.45 p.m. CET
From waste to high-tech
German fishmeal producer Bioceval is making tons of money every year -- from fish waste.
Bodo von Holten, president of the German Fishmeal and Fish Oil Organization and CEO of Bioceval, showcased a high-tech approach which has arisen from an industry that simply buys fish waste.
"We are collecting byproducts from fish producers," he said. "Processors are now actually getting a lot of money for their waste."
Bioceval grades the waste according to its attributes -- if it's from ASC or MSC-certified products and so on -- and produces meal and oil, which it then sells on to animal feed producers, to dietary supplement producers or producers of functional peptides in the pharmaceutical industry.
"We are able to get high quantities," he said, adding this business is all set out for further future growth.
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Wednesday, Sept. 30, 5.20 p.m. CET
Of cats and dogs...
Michael Bellingham, chief executive of the Pet Foods Manufacturers Association in the United Kingdom, called for greater collaboration between the fishmeal and fish oil industry and pet food producers, telling delegates there are a number of untapped opportunities in the market.
The UK pet food market is valued at £2.8 billion annually, he said. In comparison, the European market is worth about €33.5 billion.
While it's "quite a mature market" with relatively flat sales and volumes, the trend towards more dry pet food could pose an opportunity for fishmeal and fish oil producers.
Talking to IntraFish after his speech, Bellingham said he was happy to attend the IFFO conference, and is hoping there will be some future collaboration in the field.
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Wednesday, Sept. 30, 4.25 p.m. CET
Bakkafrost calling for higher fishmeal, fish oil inclusion rates
Bakkafrost's Havsbrun has been banking on continuously high inclusion rates of fishmeal and fish oil -- and this is paying off, according to Odd Eliasen, managing director at Havsbrun, said in his presentation Wednesday afternoon.
While the rest of the salmon industry has been gradually increasing the amount of plant-based proteins and oils, and will continue to do so, Havsbrun's feed formula maintained higher levels of marine-based proteins, he said.
"We rely on a high inclusion of fishmeal and fish oil in our diets. With our recipe we know and are sure that we are able to produce a healthy fish," he said.
The result? A better-quality fish, for which customers all over the world are willing to pay more.
"But of course we are aware of the trend to use less and less marine proteins in feed," Eliasen said.
"Will fishmeal be one of the key ingredients in the future of salmon diets? The answer is pretty much in our own hands."
He also criticized the salmon industry for not knowing enough about the actual benefits of fishmeal and fish oil, and called on companies to "jump on the knowledge wagon again" and invest heavily in R&D.
"It is not okay that the feed companies know more about these benefits than us...I’m also pointing fingers to myself and my company," he said.
Bottom line is, that a lot more needs to be done in that area, he said.
"The more knowledge we have about our product the better we can do when we argue about the price."
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Wednesday, Sept. 30 3.50 p.m. CET
Seafish's RFS standard moving on to new pastures
UK industry body Seafish, which launched its revised Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS) earlier this year, is looking into adding a chain of custody (CoC) standard to the scheme, following calls and a “phenomenal” response from the industry, Tom Pickerell, technical director at Seafish, said.
The CoC was requested primarily by the supply chain, he told the audience at the IFFO conference. To avoid duplication – and confusion – Seafish is hoping to work with GlobalGAP “to adopt an approach which facilitates harmonized audits,” he said.
Nevertheless, the RFS will remain a business-to-business standard, he stressed.
On the back of growing interest for the certification for foreign fleets – triggered by the recently uncovered slavery issues on boats – Seafish also wants to develop an so-called improvers program.
This program would include those with reputational issues, Pickerell said. The challenge would be to meet the RFS standards.
The program would give a structured framework for improving performances, use the RFS standard to measure performance, and basically follow the same principles as fisheries improvement projects (FIPs) and aquaculture improvement projects (AIPs).
All this could eventually result in a vessel improvers program (VIP), which would have the aim to develop a structured improver program to provide a pathway for improvement for vessels and skippers that at present would struggle to meet the RFS standard.
To trial this, Seafish is looking for volunteers, Pickerell said.
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Wednesday, Sept. 30, 1.35 p.m. CET
Omega-3 market not delivering as promised
Adam Ismail, executive director of United States-based GOED, told the audience on Wednesday morning that despite high growth expectations, the omega-3 market did not deliver.
"It's been a very dramatic couple of years," he said. New data shows that volumes declined in 2014, with Asia being the only region showing growth.
More importantly, the current year might not look good either, which is the "complete opposite to the expectations we've had."
One interesting trend, however, is that while demand for products sourced from reduction fisheries has gone down, demand for crude oil is "much stronger" and prospects are good.
This is down to a change in the product mix, with consumers asking for higher levels of EPA and DHA in smaller doses.
"That's changing really quickly and dramatically, and that’s a trend you should be watching. The outlook for crude oil demand should be fairly stable."
Issues impacting overall demand include media coverage of quality issues in infant formula and cod liver oil categories in China, which has driven down demand for algal DHA and cod liver oil.
In addition, the Chinese government has backed breastfeeding campaigns and have cut down on formula advertising.
In the US market, on the other hand, declines in the supplement category have caused demand to decline, and the pharmaceutical sector is also undergoing a change with the introduction to generics that have led to less promotion of pharma products, Ismail said.
In addition, anti diet supplement media campaigns resulting from "poorly designed" studies have been gathering a lot of attention.
Nevertheless, Ismail is convinced that in the long-term there should be growth on the agenda.
"This industry depends on science, which supports the benefits of omega-3," he told the audience, adding the industry is currently undergoing a period of adjustment.
"There is a reason to believe in this market, even though growth is declining right now," he said.
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Wednesday, Sept. 30, 12.35 p.m. CET
China's fishmeal, fish oil market
Maggie Xu, China director at IFFO, shared some of the latest trend's in the country's fishmeal and fish oil sector in her highly interesting presentation this morning, which was dotted with an incredible amount of numbers, figures and data.
This IntraFish reporter had issues to keep track but will try to summarize some of the most important developments and trends:
- Imports of fishmeal dropped in the first eight months of this year to 630,000 metric tons, down from around 880,000 metric tons in the first eight months of 2014.
- So far this year, Peru remained the main supplier of fishmeal with 50 percent, followed by Chile, the United States, Russia and Vietnam with 7 percent each.
- Fish oil imports were up 23 percent year-on-year from 30,500 metric tons through August last year, to 37,600 metric tons in the first eight months this year.
- Vietnam was the biggest supplier of fish oil so far in 2015 with about 41 percent, but falling from a 53 percent share between January and December last year. Xu explained this dominance is down to the relatively low cost of Vietnamese fish oil.
- India is now the second biggest supplier of fish oil to China, taking up a 22 percent market share from 8 percent last year. Peru lost some ground, falling from a market share of 23 percent last year to 13 percent in the first eight months this year.
- According to official information, the Chinese feed market moved from a massive growth period into "an area of saturated growth" which is down to environmental challenges (weather conditions), as well as lower margins due to a slowdown of the economy.
- China's domestic feed production hovers at around 170,000 to 180,000 metric tons. The hog industry is using up the biggest shares, followed by the meat and egg poultry industry, only then comes aquaculture.
- The average annual growth rate is now at about 1.5 percent, compared to 7 percent some years ago.
- Overall Chinese fishmeal consumption was down 50 percent between January and May this year, but showed signs of recovery since the beginning of June. Demand is expected to be at between 1.2 and 1.4 million metric tons.
- China's officials expect that the aqua feed market will lead the growth in demand in the next years, but 2015 showed signs of a slowdown due to environmental and disease challenges.
- Nevertheless, Xu said, aquaculture will continue to be the "powerhouse" of China's feed consumption. But it is not going to expand very fast due to rising labor and production cost.
- Demand from the shrimp sector was down this year, as farmers "did not have a good start to the year" with mortality rates "as high as 50 to 80 percent by April" this year. This was down to hot temperatures, lower broodstock quality. Conditions have been improving August.
There's absolutely no guarantee that this list is complete.
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Wednesday, Sept. 30, 11.00 a.m. CET
Harsh words for MSC
Eduardo Goycoolea, executive director of New world Currents, had some harsh words for the MSC over the last couple of days.
On Tuesday late afternoon, delegates discussed the harmonization of standards, with ASC's Michiel Fransen saying the upcoming ASC feed standard will target full inclusion of the MSC-certified resources within the next 10 years, and reduce its reliance on the IFFO standard.
This triggered some uproar in the audience.
Goycoolea pointed out, according to him a crucial, deficit of the MSC certification over IFFO RS: While the IFFO depends on government regulation, the MSC "doesn't trust our governments" but intends to "replace" regulation.
"That may be valid in some places but most of us at this conference believe in the work our governments are doing," he said before adding he believes the MSC's "approach is a little bit offensive.
"I’d like to be IFFO RS to continue to be our main model. This is the fishmeal and fish oil industry after all," he said.
A day earlier, on Monday, when the discussion evolved around why none of the world's largest fisheries for fishmeal and fish oil are certified under the MSC standards -- for instance the Peruvian anchovy fishery -- Goycoolea suggested the certification is "too strict."
In addition, stakeholders wouldn't see any incentive to meet the standards.
Unfortunately, no representative of the MSC was present to respond -- it for sure would have given for a lively debate.
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Wednesday, Sept. 30, 10.02 a.m. CET
Oceana CEO: Future investments on the agenda
Fishmeal processing, Peru and African aquaculture -- what else is on the table for South Africa's fishing giant Oceana?
Click here to read the full story from the IntraFish interview with CEO Francois Kuttel.
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Tuesday, Sept. 29, 4.30 p.m. CET
Social concerns one everyone's minds
The social issues uncovered by the media in the past two years, have left a massive impact on the industry -- and most of all on standards such as the MSC, ASC, GlobalGAP, IFFO RS and the Global Aquaculture Alliance's (GAA's) Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification.
There are some gaps in each standard, Dan Lee, BAP standards coordinator at GAA, said.
"The main problem, as highlighted in the press and the media, is that there are cases such as Thailand where conditions on these vessels are close to slavery. There is the danger of workers to be trafficked, and conditions are very poor indeed."
So how can the industry do it? Through harmonization, he believes.
"The approach we're looking at now is to link all these programs," Lee said. This would mean that BAP would continue to certify processors, farms and feed mills, use the IFFO RS at the fishmeal plant level.
For fishing vessels, the best option is the recently launched Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS) by UK industry body Seafish, which is set to roll out internationally.
"The idea is the approach of Russian dolls," he said, which means that BAP and would put in a requirement for IFFO RS certified materials, and IFFO RS would put in a requirement for RFS certified vessels.
"It’s still very speculative but incorporating these standards would be one approach," Lee said.
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Tuesday, Sept. 29, 4.10 p.m. CET
ASC feed standard expected for 2016
The ASC is expecting to pilot its feed standard towards the end of 2015, or in early 2016, Michiel Fransen, standards and certification coordinator at ASC, said -- and partners are needed.
Currently, the ASC is reworking the first draft after the public consultation period, before it will publish a second draft, which will also undergo public consultation.
The main scope of the standard is "give a more balanced approach" including raw materials coming from marine ingredients, plant ingredients and animal ingredients, he said.
It is set to include two sections, and aims to cover responsible processes in and around the feed mill, as well as specific ingredient requirements.
In light of the growing aquafeed volumes -- according to FAO data it is currently estimated at around 50 million metric tons worldwide and could hit 70 million metric tons by 2020 -- having a strong and robust approach is key, Fransen said.
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Tuesday, Sept. 29, 3.30 p.m. CET
It's all about the DNA
Delegates at this afternoon's first workshop heard some interesting future concepts on using DNA sequencing in fishmeal.
Bogi Eliasen, program director at Fish Gen, and Paul Flicek, senior scientist and team leader at the European Bioinformatic Institute (EBI) called on IFFO and the industry to cooperate with them on the development of a tool that uses biomarkers and reference genomes used for the traceability of fish and stock monitoring.
Interesting, you think? So do IFFO and some Faroese companies, "who have shown interest," according to Eliasen.
According to him, it could improve sustainability and stock management, which is increasingly needed in light of increasing pressure from the market and politics. It could optimize fishing, and to some extent help battle IUU.
In addition, the user will know "what he gets and that it's safe," he said.
So far, no one offers the service -- it would be an industry first.
However, "broad cooperation" is needed, Eliasen said, adding Fish Gen and EBI would facilitate that.
Customers could be the industry, including fisheries, producers and retailers, but such as tool could also be used by fishery and veterinary surveillance and monitoring and research, as well as by end-users and buyers.
One issue, however, could be the cost. Flicek said the current cost reference for instance to get a genomic reference for Peruvian anchovy is at around $100,000.
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Tuesday, Sept. 29, 3.10 p.m. CET
Still waiting on EU's ethoxyquin decision
The European Union's decision on reauthorization of the antioxidant ethoxyquin has still not been made, Andrew Jackson, outgoing technical director of IFFO, told the audience this afternoon.
"This has been taking quite a long time, and the longer it takes the bigger are our concerns," he said.
In November 2014, the responsible consortium submitted a time plan to provide a complete safety assessment of the antioxidant, and in June 2015 the genotixicity test were completed and submitted to EFSA.
These results, however, are not publicly available, Jackson, who will remain on as IFFO chairman, said.
"We believe we’re getting an answers next month. And that is very critical," he said.
But it could take even longer, as the results of an additional study still have to be submitted.
"And then discussions will be held with the member states," Jackson said. "And unfortunately we don't know what these discussions are going to be."
Jackson promised to share any information as soon as IFFO would get its hands on it.
Ethoxyquin is still permitted in the EU as an additive to fish feed. The maximum allowed amount is 150 mg/kg.
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Tuesday, Sept. 29, 9.38 a.m. CET
Does the IFFO RS marine ingredients standard go far enough?
The IFFO's Global Standard for Responsible Supply (RS) hit a new milestone this year: 111 sites are now certified in around 15 countries worldwide, Francisco Aldon, head of operations at IFFO, told IntraFish Monday evening.
"This represents around 40 percent of the world production," he said.
Peruvian sites hit 17 percent certification, Chilean 8 percent, US sites 4 percent, the Nordics with Denmark, Norway and Iceland around 3 percent each, while around 1 percent of the sites in the Faroe Islands, France, Thailand and Vietnam are certified.
"We've certified most of the biggest factories," Aldon said, adding it has grown from 25 percent in 2010 to 42 percent today.
"It's been constant and consistent," he told IntraFish. There are several countries IFFO would like to join the party, including in southeast Asia and Africa, but many "are not up to the level" yet.
Several of the sites in these countries could take up to five to 10 years to implement the necessary improvements, he said.
However, in light of the recent reports of slavery and human abuse, especially in the Thai shrimp feed supply chain, one has to wonder if the standard goes far enough.
The IFFO governance board is currently in the process of reviewing the RS, with Aldon saying that the technical committee -- which consists of NGOs, industry members, retailers, fish processors, the ASC and MSC, as well as independent fisheries assessors -- just came together for its first meeting.
The goal is to launch IFFO RS V2 by the end of 2016, he said.
Despite the issues, uncovered by The Guardian and the Associated Press in a series of reports, the revised standard will not include social aspects such as workers safety on fishing vessels.
IFFO committed to review these social aspects in the new version of the RS standard, but Aldon said "we're an environmental standard and our auditors are not trained to do social audits. It would get even more expensive."
The current issues, he said, "are about slavery in the fishing industry. It's extremely difficult to monitor these boats, for example in Thailand. We need to focus on one point -- that will help more.
"We're doing the right thing," he said. Cooperation with other standards such as Seafish's Responsible Fishing Standard (RFS) will be key.
Tying in with what panelists said on Monday (see previous blog post), Aldon told IntraFish, in five years time he'd like to see the fishmeal and fish oil industry in a position "in which responsible practice and responsible behavior is done because businesses want to do it" and not because they have to.
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Monday, Sept. 28, 5.15 p.m. CET
The future is about sustainability
Where do you see the fishmeal industry in five years time? That was the question posed to this afternoon's panel.
The answers the audience got were quite unanimous: There needs to be an increased focus on sustainability.
ASC's Chris Ninnes said; "as a growing market across all commodities for responsibility and sustainability the aquaculture industry suffers some credibility issues."
One "lightning rod" is feed, and the pressure on this credibility will increase from all sides. Certifications, he said, will certainly help to alleviate this pressure.
Luis Enrique Santana of Global Alliance Enterprises, added that to reach the sustainability goals, cooperation between fishmeal and fish oil producers and the aquaculture industry will need to increase.
Oceana's Francois Kuttel said, he hopes that in five years time "we have done a body of work to defend our industry."
More standards will certainly help. In addition, he pointed out, that there will "hopefully be a higher level of transparency and cooperation between us as producers and the aquaculture industry."
Satoru Haga, of Tokyo-based Kanematsu Corporation, agreed, saying the future growth needs to be sustainable, otherwise biomass won't be secured.
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Monday, Sept. 28, 4.00 p.m. CET
The ASC in numbers
Chris Ninnes, CEO of the ASC, gave an overview of the organization's past five years since its inception -- and shared some incredible figures.
As of Aug. 10, 3,437 products certified products were available across 47 countries, with 609 companies chain of custody-certified. The number of certified farms hit 178 in August, covering 21 countries.
"Overall there is a strong market demand for ASC-certified products, especially for shrimp and salmon," Ninnes said. "I don’t think these growth curves are blips, they will keep on growing."
The ASC will soon launch its latest standard for seriola and cobia, which will "hopefully" happen by the end of the year.
Standards for barramundi, snapper and grouper are also in development. In addition, it is working on the development of a responsible feed standard, which ASC hopes to launch by the end of 2016.
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Monday, Sept. 28, 3.30 p.m. CET
Making a case for fishmeal investment
South African fishing company Oceana made headlines this year with its acquisition of United States-based Daybrook Fisheries.
It wasn't an easily made decision, however, as Francois Kuttel, CEO of Oceana Group, told the audience during this afternoon's opening session.
"We've long been looking at acquisitive targets to enlarge our portfolio," he said.
In South Africa itself, the company had limited opportunities due to competition issues, but there were a number of other targets on the agenda, including canned sardine operations in Marocco, tuna fishing, whitefish investments and aquaculture.
However, nothing was as convincing as fishmeal, Kuttel said.
"We have concluded as a company that out of all the investment possibilities fishmeal is probably the most attractive," he said.
The positives? A positive long-term supply and demand dynamics, specific nutritional properties, improved global resource management, the growth of the IFFO RS certification, and the general growth and consolidation of feed producers.
These positives even outweigh the negatives of the resource volatility, the fact that it's a commodity business, and the pricing volatility.
Naturally, Oceana looked at Peru first, but ended up at the Gulf Menhaden Fishery instead, which Kuttel described as a "sound and well-managed resource with no competitors from a direct consumption point of view.
With Daybrook, he said, Oceana found a solid company of scale, with a strong cash-flow generation, a world-class plant and well-maintained fleet and an "excellent track record."
It also opens up new markets -- so far untapped -- markets for Oceana, in the United States and Canada, in Europe and Asia, and will help diversify the risk of relying too heavily on Africa, he said.
But the acquisition of Daybrook is not enough, Kuttel told the audience further: Oceana will continue to invest in its production capacities.
In November 2015, a new production facility in Angola will go into operation, with a production capacity of 15,000 metric tons of fishmeal and 5,000 metric tons of fish oil.
The company will also replace its production capacity in Namibia by September 2016.
By then, it aims to produce 107,000 metric tons of fishmeal and 34,700 metric tons of fish oil, Kuttel said.
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Monday, Sept. 28, 12.40 p.m. CET
MSC-certified Peruvian anchovies? Not yet
When will Peru's anchovies fishery be MSC certified? This was the question asked by many in the room.
The answer: Only the gods know.
"We’re considering," Humberto Speziani, president of IFFO, said. "We did the assessment a few years ago but we weren't ready for yet," he told the audience, adding it's a "difficult time" right now.
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Monday, Sept. 28, 12.30 p.m. CET
Green propaganda
NGOs and environmental groups spend a staggering $500 million a year on marine conservation, according to Ray Hilborn, professor of aquatic and fisheries sciences at the University of Washington, said in his presentation Monday morning.
"They have large staff...[so] they have a large need for money," he said.
The issue? Most of them are funded by direct donations, which means they often pick out the most sensational findings of studies, usually showing the downside of fishing and its impact on the environment.
This was also the case with the LENFEST report, released three years ago, titled 'Little fish - big impact.'
"It was used as ammunition by a number of NGOs," Hilborn said, adding there were some major gaps in the report.
John Goodlad, chairman at Shetland Catch, picked up on these comments at the following Q&A session, telling delegates the fishing industry has been "completely inadequate in responding" to the green propaganda.
He named the example of celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who -- through a TV program -- contributed to the European Union's reform of the Common Fishery Policy (CFP).
"As a result of this poor-informed TV program with a famous TV personality a lot of the smaller fishermen will be forced out of business."
This has a "huge impact" on the wider industry, he said, adding organizations such as the IFFO should step up and finally respond.
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Monday, Sept. 28, 11.30 a.m. CET
Collaboration toward higher value creation
Ewos' Einar Wathne had a number of suggestions to the world's fishmeal and fish oil producers, which could help them and the feed industry "realize our full potential."
"We have long history of innovating our way through the challenges this exciting industry brings. And we will need even deeper value chain cooperation to realize our full potential. Complexity is not a threat but it’s an opportunity," he said.
First of all, fishing companies need to realize that they "sit on very valuable nutrient packages, influencing the entire value chain."
Producers have to move away from all catch-driven strategies, he said, and instead listen to the consumers who are the final decision makers.
"In between you and the consumers, there are retailers, fish farmers and feed producers, listen to them as well," Wathne told the audience. "It may increase complexity, but it will pay off."
The industry should also stop selling fishmeal on protein content, Wathne said, adding animal models should be used to test the real value of fishmeal.
Lastly, "certifications have come to remain," and there will be no way around it.
All of this "will be the way to better resource management, higher value creation and better profitability," he said.
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Monday, Sept. 28, 11.10 a.m. CET
Standards -- threat or opportunity?
The Global Salmon Initiative's (GSI's) goal to have all of its members -- which include about 50 percent of the world's salmon producers -- certified under the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standard by 2020 will pose a huge challenge to the fish feed industry, Einar Wathne, CEO of Ewos Group, said.
Within five years, the projected certified salmon farms will hit 500 -- from currently 47 (July figures), with another 52 under assessment.
So what does that mean for feed suppliers?, Wathne asked.
Already by 2018 this would mean that the demand for ASC-compliant salmon feed would hit 1 million metric tons, up from 140,000 metric tons last year.
In addition to GSI members, other players are also "on the ASC journey," he said, adding to the growing demand.
"If this certification goes at is seems today then global [ASC-compliant] feed demand will grow significantly," he told the audience. "It gives for a little bit of a scary scenario."
Assuming a 20 percent inclusion of fishmeal in feed, this would mean that in a high case scenario 683 million metric tons of fishmeal would be needed by 2020.
For certified fish oil, assuming a 11 percent inclusion in feed, demand would hit 376 million metric tons by the same time.
"All in all it’s big quantities and it should give for interesting opportunities," Wathne said.
Given these projections, the feed industry will need to work with bigger fisheries, including the anchoveta fishery in Peru and the blue whiting fishery in Europe.
Wathne, and Ewos, is seeing five possibilities to meet this demand. Firstly through Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)-certified fisheries, secondly through trimmings and byproducts, as well as through the ASC FishSource criteria, through IFFO RS 2.0 and by going through the low-marine ASC feed, which means novel ingredients avoiding fishmeal and fish oil.
All in all, it's going to be challenging -- but Wathne urged to see this development as an opportunity, and not a threat.
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Monday, Sept. 28, 10.20 a.m. CET
Anchoveta and the waiting game
One of the industry's biggest worries at the moment is El Nino, and the threat it brings with it to the Peruvian anchoveta fishing industry.
During his address to delegates this morning, Mariano Gutierrez, professor of evaluation of marine resources at the faculty of oceanography and fishery of the National University Federico Villarreal, Peru, tried to disperse some of these concerns.
The monitoring technology used in Peru by Imarpe is one of the best and unique available, which should give the industry "confidence" that fisheries management in the region is done right.
In addition, there are no signs of reduction of anchoveta's biomass, regardless of the El Nino and the consequent increase in natural mortality.
Nevertheless, each El Nino will bring a precautionary reduction in quotas with it, "and this will likely continue in the future," Gutierrez said.
And what remains unsure is whether or not the current El Nino will extend -- for a clearer picture everyone will have to wait until Novembers.
"There will be a more accurate forecast in November," he said. "However, at the moment the current El Nino is weakening."
So, the waiting game continues...
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Monday, Sept. 28, 9.40 a.m. CET
Industry at a crossroads
Humberto Speziani, president of IFFO, kicked off the conference this morning, telling delegates the fishmeal and fish oil industry "is at a crossroads.
"We have sustainability, environmental and social issues with our stakeholders," he said.
The industry, just such as many others, has the obligation to "act for the benefit for the society at large," he urged.
Only if social responsibility is incorporated in an industry's core values, companies acting within this industry can be profitable -- especially in the age of the internet and social media, which has made the world aware of "our industry action."
"The industry has an ethical obligation to be transparent to their customers to keep the public trust," he said.
Only then, the fishmeal and fish oil industry will find the right path to follow.
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Monday, Sept. 28, 8.00 a.m. CET
All eyes on Berlin
A packed three-day program is awaiting delegates at this year's annual conference of the International Fishmeal and Fish Oil Organization (IFFO), taking place in the InterContinental hotel in the German capital Berlin.
There's much to be talked about: The global fishmeal and fish oil market in 2015 remained "uncertain with the threat of an El Nino in Peru over our heads," as Humberto Speziani, president of IFFO, wrote in his welcome address to attendees.
El Nino's impact will be an important factor for the fishmeal and fish oil supply also next year -- and is certainly on everybody's mind in the industry.
The event will see presentations from several IFFO and industry experts on the issue, and perhaps provide insight in some of the most effective mitigation strategies.
In addition, delegates will hear about future innovation needs in fishmeal, the latest research and development progress as well as future investment opportunities.
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