Fish-In:Fish-Out milestone for BioMar
Feed manufacturer BioMar has been able to average an annual Fish-In:Fish-Out (FIFO) ratio of below one for its raw material usage for the first time in its history.
The company said new alternative raw materials as well as high prices of fish oil and fishmeal in 2016 made it possible to formulate price competitive, high performance feed with a low FIFO ratio, which fell from 1.05 in 2015, to 0.93 last year.
BioMar was helped by the fact that 44 per cent of the 84,728 tonnes of fish oils used in its feeds last year came from fish processing trimmings, which are deductible from the FIFO ratio calculation.
Group chief executive Carlos Diaz said BioMar will continue its search for innovative and sustainable solutions to issues facing the industry, adding that “although it is unlikely that BioMar will achieve such a good FIFO ratio every year due to ever changing market conditions, this is a major milestone and shows that we are progressing towards an industry where sustainable and high performance alternatives to fish oil and fishmeal are accessible and becoming commercially viable”.
Sustainable harvesting
News of BioMar's landmark achievement is featured in its newly-released annual Sustainability Report, which can be read here.
The report also focuses its partnership with Aker BioMarine in the sustainable harvesting of Antarctic krill from the lower trophic levels, and its investment – alongside TerraVia and Bunge – in the production in Brazil of the algal oil product AlgaPrime, which is high in the long chain omgega-3 DHA.
BioMar operates 13 feed factories including one at Grangemouth, Scotland. According to its own figures, roughly one out of five farmed fish produced in Europe, South and Central America is fed on BioMar fish feed.
