We're not feeding poultry byproducts to our fish, say Scottish salmon farmers
But is chicken on the menu for Mowi?
No Scottish salmon producers currently use poultry-derived proteins in their feed, trade body Salmon Scotland has said.
Its statement came in response to a report by the Financial Times yesterday that the world’s biggest salmon farmer, Mowi, is planning to introduce poultry-based feed in Norway and Scotland, “according to people familiar with the matter”.
While Salmon Scotland’s response addresses the current situation, it does not refute the FT’s claim. Fish Farming Expert’s questions to Mowi Scotland today were referred to Salmon Scotland.
If Mowi does begin using poultry byproducts in Europe, it wil be following a trend. Grieg Seafood introduced chicken meal and oil into its feed in Norway in July, and Lerøy Seafood Group also uses it.
One issue Mowi Scotland may face is its role as supplier of Sainsbury’s own-brand salmon products. The retailer told the FT that poultry-derived ingredients were prohibited in feed for its own-label salmon but did not say whether that applied to third-party brands.
Safe use elsewhere
Poultry byproducts, which are currently cheaper than marine ingredients, have been safely used in salmon feed in North America, Chile, and Tasmania for years but have been avoided in Europe due to fears that their use might put consumers off buying the fish.
However, the volumes of forage fish being taken from the sea have largely reached their sustainable limits, while the demand for marine ingredients from the expanding aquaculture sector continues to grow.
The need for alternatives to fishmeal and fish oil has been intensified by this year’s unusually strong El Niño climate event, which led to an extended closure of Peru’s anchovy fishing season to safeguard stocks.
According to an update from marine ingredients organisation IFFO earlier this month, cumulative fishmeal output by its member countries was running 45% behind the same period in 2025, with fish oil output down 26%. This year’s global supply of marine ingredients is expected to be the lowest since 2016.
'We need an alternative'
Jørgen Skeide, feed manager at Lerøy, told the FT: “With the scale of our operation, we needed an alternative to fishmeal … poultry meal was the only raw material that checked all of these boxes.”
Stein Alexander Aukner, head of equity research at bank DNB Carnegie, told the paper: “The advantage is that the chicken market is growing in line with consumption, while wild fish catches have been flat since the 1980s.”
According to the FT, chicken byproducts are parts of the bird deemed not fit for human consumption, including bone, liver and brain, although some parts, such as feathers, are excluded.
In 2018, feed expert Brett Glencross, who was a professor at the University of Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture (IoA), told Fish Farming Expert that the Scottish salmon industry’s unwillingness to use of poultry proteins in feeds needs to be overcome.
More reliable than fishmeal
“Poultry meal is more reliable that fishmeal, we need to get this into the UK system,” said Glencross, an Australian who joined IoA after working as technical manager in the aquafeed division of feed producer Ridley.
“There’s currently half a million tonnes of it produced in the UK each year and it either goes into the pet food industry or gets burnt in power stations – it’s a travesty.
“It’s been approved by the EU and it’s been shown that no pathogens can be transferred from fish to chickens or vice versa.”
Glencross, who is now technical director of IFFO, said at the time that poultry meal was “low-hanging fruit” for fish farmers looking to save on feed costs.
“If it were included in salmon feeds it would lower feed costs by around 10% – which equates to a saving of about £40 million a year.”
Eight years on, those savings would be much higher.
