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GSI Members’ Commitment to Responsible Sourcing of Marine Ingredients for Feed

Farmed salmon require a diet rich in nutrients including omega-3 fatty acids to replicate their natural diet that supports optimal health for both the fish and us. It is critical that we ensure their feed provides all the necessary nutrition while being derived from sustainable sources with minimal environmental and social impacts.

Over the last decade, significant developments in the knowledge and approaches to feed sourcing and production have allowed for greater efficiencies. From improved Feed Conversion Ratios (FCR) and continued innovation, salmon feed has maximized benefits from both terrestrial and marine ingredients.

However, concerns remain about the impact of the sector’s use of these resources, and what that means for ecosystem biodiversity, carbon footprint, local fisheries, and food security in coastal areas. Here, we break down the challenges and GSI’s efforts to improve the situation

FCR V7

Source: iffo.com

What is FCR? 
The amount of feed an animal requires to gain 1 kg of body weight

The Challenge

Traditionally, farmed salmon feed has relied on wild fish for fish meal and fish oil. These ingredients provide essential nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids that are vital for the healthy development and nutrient content of the salmon, optimizing their qualities for human diets. Over the last 30 years, innovations in feed ingredients have led to the increased use of fish by-products to produce fishmeal and fish oil, as well as the identification of additional terrestrial sources of nutrients. These advancements have allowed for increased feed production without any additional use of marine ingredients in the feed, and in Chile for example, there are diets which are formulated to include optimal nutrients for farmed salmon without any fish meal. In fact, farmed salmon now has one of the lowest FCRs compared to land-based animal proteins thanks to these improvements, and we are continuously working to reduce this further.

However, we acknowledge that marine resources from wild capture fisheries remain an important source of feed, which can pose social and environmental challenges. For example, the routing of small pelagic fish to the global market can take valuable nutrients and food security away from local residents, and there may be possible impacts on ecosystem biodiversity.

Spotlight on Western Africa

One key concern is the well-being of local fisheries in Mauritania and other West African countries where the European salmon industry and other aquaculture sectors source a significant volume of small pelagic fish for feed.

For this reason, the Global Roundtable on Marine Ingredients, a sector-wide, multi-stakeholder initiative, was established in 2021 to drive environmental and social improvements in key global fisheries. The group has acknowledged the gap between the current practices in West African countries and the fishmeal and fish oil industry’s global standards and recommended several approaches for state and local government policymakers, fishmeal/oil factories, and industry feed companies to improve livelihoods and human rights of all workers throughout the small pelagic fish supply chain. This initiative is one way the industry is working to improve the situation through better policies and practices.

Global efforts to ensure long-term sustainability of marine resources

In recognition of these, actions have been put in place to help minimize impacts on marine ingredient stocks, which include:

  • Fishing quotas and stock management: These measures ensure the long-term sustainability of wild stocks. International scientific organizations assess the biomass and stock status to set limits and recommendations on the volumes of wild fish allowed to be caught per year based on species abundance in each region. Nations that share fish stocks agree on a total catch limit that aligns with scientific advice to prevent overfishing. There are also market-led approaches to improve pelagic fisheries management, including the North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group (NAPA) which unites members of the supply chain through long-term, science-based management programs.
  • Third-party certification schemes: These schemes offer additional reassurance on the sustainability of wild fish stocks. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification allows for greater monitoring of stock levels and reduced environmental impact by motivating improved fisheries management practices and enhancing transparency and traceability. While not a certification, the MarinTrust standards are dedicated to marine ingredient production factories, allowing them to gain recognition for their responsible sourcing and traceability, with assessed raw material as a prerequisite.
  • Fishery Improvement Programs (FIPs): For fisheries that do not yet meet the requirements of certification schemes, there is the opportunity for a multi-stakeholder FIP to be developed and implemented to support their accelerated trajectory toward certification.

However, we recognize that even more action is needed to balance the current environmental and social complexities linked to feed ingredients. This is where our collaborative efforts with the feed industry and stakeholder partners come into play.

GSI Philosophy

GSI members and our associate feed companies are committed to reducing the social and environmental impacts of salmon farming while maintaining the health and high-quality nutrition profile of our fish. We are continually seeking ways to make measurable improvements in our responsible sourcing, supply chain transparency, and exploring innovative approaches to further reduce these impacts.

GSI commitment to continuous improvements in responsible sourcing

Catalyzing Informed Decision-Making
In collaboration with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), GSI developed the first-of-its-kind Environmental Social Governance (ESG) Feed Risk Assessment Tool. This tool provides a comprehensive risk profile of the ingredients used in feed for animal protein production, covering key topics such as land use, biodiversity, climate, nutrition, and social aspects. It enables salmon (and other animal protein) producers to make informed decisions and avoid ingredients or suppliers with high-risk practices and significant negative impacts.

ESG Feed Risk Assessment Tool: Topics

Topics were chosen based on what is most material to understand supply chain transparency and support improvements in sustainability, including basic human rights, restorative land use, biodiversity practices, circularity, pollution, water consumption, and more.

Commitment to Responsible Sourcing
While reducing the dependency on marine ingredients is important, sustainable sourcing policies can improve transparency and reduce the impact of the industry with meaningful social and environmental outcomes. GSI is actively working with our members and supply chain partners to ensure responsible sourcing by:

  • Integrating the recently launched ASC Feed Standard, which assess all feed ingredients used in more than 1% of the annual feed mill production volume, and includes an audit of feed mills and marine ingredients to ensure they do not come from illegal, unreported, and/or unregulated fisheries. It also accounts for nutritional and welfare needs of fish, environmental and carbon impacts, biodiversity, human rights, deforestation, and land conversion targets.
  • Working with the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) Feed Mill Standard, which assesses mills on their environmental and social impacts, and requires that a minimum of 75% of marine ingredients come from certified sources or FIPs.
  • Ensuring no marine ingredients used come from IUU fisheries or supply chains with modern slavery, and an ambition to work towards sourcing only from Marin Trust and MSC schemes.

Specific to krill, GSI members are: 

  • Ensuring that all use of krill is harvested in a responsible manner to preserve stocks, under strict supervision and in line with regulated catch limits set by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
  • Working to improve transparency in the sector, including the documentation of any by-catch as standard.
  • Supporting the creation of marine protected areas, including no fishing areas in Antarctica.
  • Sourcing only Marin-Trust or MSC-certified Antarctic krill.

Improvements in Feed Efficiencies
Through ingredient research and innovation, the aquaculture industry has made significant strides in improving feed efficiencies over the past two decades. GSI members collaborate with supply chain partners to drive further improvements in feed efficiencies including:

  • FCR: On average, 1.27 kg of feed is currently needed for farmed salmon to gain 1 kg of body mass. This reflects improvement from the previous average of 1.36 in 2000.
  • FIFO: IFFO data highlights a significant reduction from 3.21 in 2000 to 0.96 in 2020.
  • FFDR: ASC sets a required FFDR of below 1.35 to achieve certification.
  • GSI member progress: Since 2013 GSI members have reduced the amount of wild forage fish sourced for fish meal by 51% and for fish oil by 30% in their feeds.

Increasing Utilization of By-Products 
Another approach to improving the sustainability of feed ingredients involves using by-products, which are parts of the fish not utilized from other fishery and aquaculture sectors and redirecting them to become valuable resources. According to the Marine Ingredients Organisation IFFO, in 2022 38% of the raw material used for marine ingredients came from by-product sources. Utilizing these resources has the potential to not only reduce waste but also improve factors such as nutrient content and reduce the carbon footprint associated with production and transportation. MarinTrust encourages the use of by-products and sets criteria to assess these raw materials against its responsible sourcing, production, and traceability standards. 

Another form of by-products is from Land Animal Proteins (LAPs), which refers to protein sources derived from terrestrial animals like poultry and pigs. These resources offer an alternative to fishmeal and utilize a resource which would otherwise be sent to a landfill. The use of LAPs is restricted or underutilized in some regions due to consumer perception regarding disease transmission, but their use is heavily regulated to ensure safety. When they are used, LAPs offer a cost-effective and highly sustainable source of protein. More work needs to be done to build understanding of the potential environmental benefits of using these resources and the food safety processes in place to ensure safe foods. Both forms of by-products, marine or terrestrial, often offer a small greenhouse gas footprint and can reduce industry dependency on marine ingredients from wild capture sourcing.

Novel Oil Development
To supplement the use of marine ingredients in feed, GSI associate members continuously collaborate with their suppliers to develop novel sources of omega-3 fatty acids, such as algae oils. Together with our associate members, GSI has supported several successful initiatives, including stimulating the development of novel EPA and DHA-rich oils through the launch of a 2017 tender for alternative sources. We recognize that there are likely many alternative ingredients available, and our role is to help identify and connect R&D with the industry to align needs and accelerate development. For GSI, our role is to help the industry maintain the nutritional profile of feed while reducing environmental impacts, and we will continue to assess alternative options to achieve this.

Evolution in Sustainability Reporting 
Sustainability metrics in the aquaculture sector have evolved significantly in recent years, adapting to ongoing industry developments and growing awareness of emerging risks. Traditionally, feed inclusion metrics focused solely on the use of marine ingredients. However, today the sector requires metrics that provide accountability across all ingredients, as well as their effectiveness and impact. This is why, as GSI, we are focusing our efforts on the continued development of the GSI and WWF ESG Feed Risk Assessment Tool to support improved awareness of all possible ESG risks in the supply chain.

In addition, the industry is moving towards a more holistic life cycle assessment of ingredients, which goes beyond the traditional Fish In: Fish Out ratio or FCR and assesses all feed ingredients against a comprehensive set of sustainability metrics for inputs and outputs. By adopting a widely applicable system with a more transparent assessment framework, the goal is to better support the aquaculture sector in making more informed assessments of ingredient sustainability.

You can follow our progress via our annual sustainability report, where all GSI members transparently report the use of marine ingredients. By sharing this data, we show improvements year on year, and areas of focus for improvement in the following year. 

Collaboration to Drive Progress

Given the complexity of feed resources, we know we cannot operate alone. Through our work in GSI, and with our partners, we strive to reduce our environmental and social impact in support of healthier diets, healthy communities, and more resilient and sustainable global food systems.