Chemical Industry Support of the Fish Farming Industry

The fish farming industry (also represented by the term aquaculture industry) now provides more than 50% of global fish consumption (compared to caught/captured fish).  This percentage has greatly increased in the last 30 years and is expected to continue to increase.  In recent years, fish have accounted for around 20 percentage of total global human consumption of animal protein.  As the aquaculture industry continues to innovate and expand its production, it is likely this 20 percentage will increase.  In fact, with an increasing global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, the increase is paramount.  Click here for a good overview of such data from the United Nations (PDF file).

The chemical industry has been a major supplier to the aquaculture industry.  Materials supplied have included:  amino acids; antioxidants; carotenoid pigments; enzymes; proteins; stabilizing agents: trace elements; and vitamins.    Public, chemically-related companies marketing materials to the aquaculture industry include:  Ajinomoto; Archer Daniels Midland; BASF; Darling Ingredients; DSM; and Navozymes.

Two large, public companies that farm fish with large fish retail businesses are the Thai company Charoen Pokphand (click here to go to its website; click the Thai language link to get to the English site) and the Norwegian company Marine Harvest (click here to go to its website).  In 2016, Charoen Pokphand sold for approximately $1.9 billion its farmed fish.  This sale amount represented a 6% increase over 2015.  For Marine Harvest, farmed fish revenues in 2016 was approximately $3.7 billion and in 2015, $3.3 billion, a 12 % increase.   According to data found on the Internet, farmed-fish consumption growth globally is expected to increase about 8% per year.

The growth of the aquaculture industry over the last 30 years seems to me to be a good example of how a “new industrial sector” can benefit the chemical industry.