Under a third of salmon feed comes from the sea

Nofima researcher Trine Ytrestøyl has led a work group documenting the feed ingredients used in Norwegian salmon farming. The report, from October 2014, contains a resource budget for Norwegian salmon production in 2013 which shows the flow of nutrients from feed ingredients to whole salmon and edible product. Data has been received from the three largest feed companies in Norway.

"This is an documentation of the actual resource usage in the salmon farming industry. No other food producing industry has so far published documentation similar to this in Norway. An industry so transparent on feed ingredients is unique," says Ytrestøyl.

In 1990 feed for Norwegian farmed salmon consisted of 90 per cent marine ingredients. In 2013, this had decreased to 29.2 per cent. Between 2010 and 2013 the reduction was 15 per cent. The marine raw materials are defined as fish oil, fish meal and krill meal. 72 per cent of these commodities come directly from fishing, the rest come from trimmings and byproducts.