Fishmeal industry stands firm

There is no doubt the fishmeal sector has been having a tough time. Landings have been down, an EU ban hovers over it and fishmeal has been in the press (see World Fishing February 2004) for all the wrong reasons.

A year-long precautionary ban by the EU Commission, on feeding fishmeal to ruminants, is still in place, although the International Fishmeal and Fish Oil Organisation (IFFO) is hopeful it will be lifted from July when a new method of analysis comes into effect.

IFFO chief Dr Stuart Barlow told World Fishing: "We've spent the past year jumping all the hurdles and we feel we have met all the targets the EU has set us". He says the status of the ban is now in the hands of the EU, where each member state will vote. He hopes a decision is taken before EU enlargement from 15 to 25 countries takes priority over any other business.

The EU has been demanding a testing method which could identify all the different types of ingredients in meal. Until it was satisfied with the results, it placed a ban on feeding fishmeal to ruminants. IFFO and the industry came up with a method to distinguish between the ingredients in meal. Results in the UK and Holland were satisfactory but the EU refused to lift the ban until the pattern was the same throughout Europe.

Ups and downs

But despite this, fishmeal sales are currently buoyant and landings have improved. After a period of very low landings in August and September last year, October and November 2003 witnessed a sharp rise in catches in Chile, Peru, Denmark, Iceland and Norway. Of the October/November 231,000 tonnes landed, 42 per cent were landed in October and 58 per cent in November. This was up five per cent on the same period in 2002, although landings in November alone were 14 per cent below the previous year. Despite this they were still six per cent higher than the five-year average for those two months of 127,000t, covering 1998-2002.

More than 75 per cent of the landings during November 2003 came from Peru and that figure was 17 per cent higher than usual.

For the five-year period 1998-2002, Nordic countries landings reached 196,500t, up 11 per cent over the five year average and 43 per cent higher than 2002. Chile experienced lower catches at 133,900t, about 100,000 lower than the five-year average.

In Peru, anchovy fishing resumed in October under a temporary programme, followed by full fishing activity in November. 2003 saw a larger than usual share of catches being landed in the north of the country, while there were very few landings in the south.

In Chile, fishing conditions were generally poor, particularly in the north where landings were reported to be very low. With a total of 132,600t during October and November, landings were about two thirds lower than the previous year's 382.800t.

Iceland's lack of capelin was offset by continued blue whiting catches associated with higher than expected herring being processed. At 120,400t for October/November landings stood at 140 per cent compared to the previous year. In Norway, landings remained steady totalling 97,000t in October/November. For the same period, landings reached 181,000t in Denmark.

Short but firm

According to IIFO, all the uncertainties surrounding fishing and huge rises in freight costs led to a speculative market. This in turn was affected by an unusually strong soybean market which pushed the ratio of fishmeal/soyabean down to 2.0, the lowest level for many years. So, although supply was short for some periods of last year and some sales were affected, due to landings, and despite the EU ban, buyers managed to get the best out of a short supply. Because of this, prices remained firm. Fishmeal prices (ex Peru) closed at around US$540/tonne. Prices in Peru reached US$580/t.

The fishoil market was very slow in the latter part of 2003 due to low yields in all the main producing countries with prices at about US$530/t in Peru. According to IFFO, the market outlook remains uncertain due to expected low output in the next few months. World production for 2004 is expected to be 848,000t.

IFFO is still working hard to prove the safety of fishmeal. Allegedly high levels of dioxin in both fishmeal and farmed fish have caused much recent debate. Science magazine published a recent article, from a collaborative study led by Albany University in the US, stating that some farmed salmon as well as fishmeal may have high levels of dioxins.

The results and methodology came under attack from the industry and a number of government food safety agencies. These said levels were below the minima recommended by the World Health Organization.

The specific response from the industry has been to develop a process to filter dioxins out at an early stage. Extra steps have been taken in the process where fish-oil is filtered through a carbon filter with the aim of removing the dioxins. Two fishmeal plants have already installed the system in the UK, a further two in Denmark and one in Norway.