Thursday, September 6, 2012

Sea grown barramundi: the future white 'salmon' of the tropics?


In 2010, global production of farmed food fish was ~60 million tonnes. The production from aquaculture is almost entirely destined for human consumption. The total farm gate value of food fish production from aquaculture is estimated at US$119.4 billion for 2010. Aquaculture represents the fastest growing protein-producing system in the last three decades and also in the foreseeable future.
English: Barramundi perch (Lates calcarifer), ...
English: Barramundi perch (Lates calcarifer), piebald color morph (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is expected that aquaculture production will surpass 80 million tonnes by 2020, becoming the third-largest protein industry behind poultry and pork, but well ahead of beef.

Salmon farming represents a significant part of the high quality fish market at a forecast ~1.8M tonnes pa in 2012, and rapidly growing.  Salmon farming has a number of industry giants with many now investing in other aquaculture sectors.

The primary motivation for salmon farmers to invest in other aquaculture ventures is to leverage their knowledge of fish husbandry and achieve synergy in feed procurement, in marketing and distribution activities and to achieve species diversification in order to mitigate the effects of the salmon price fluctuation cycle.

We get our terrestrially grown meat products primarily from 4 sources; chicken, beef, pork, and lamb.  The same will likely be true from farmed fish.  With salmon as the clear #1, it is unclear what will be #2. 

Barramundi is a good candidate having many of the key drivers that made salmon successful: lends itself well to domestication, good growth, survival, density, FCR, omega 3 fatty acid levels, eating qualities, etc.  Barramundi also performs well on diets with high levels of fishmeal and fish oil substitution.  Combine these attributes with an ideal geography in Australasia (protection from severe storms) and a growing middle class market throughout Asia…a potential recipe for the “next salmon”?




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