Aquaculture feed costs are under growing strain as a decade of modest increases in fishmeal prices contrasts sharply with an unprecedented surge in fish oil costs, plaing pressure on producer’s margins and prompting a search for alternative ingredients.
According to the Fishmeal and Fish Oil Study, 2025 Edition, edited by EUMOFA, between 2010 and 2022 the real-term price of European fishmeal rose by just 3%, ensuring relative stability for feed manufacturers. In contrast, over the same period fish oil prices escalated by 117%, reflecting a significant supply-demand imbalance.
The report highlights that 63% of global fish oil production is destined for aquafeed, with salmon and trout accounting for 54% of that volume. As oil costs climb, farms are compelled to negotiate long-term purchase agreements, diversify suppliers or explore partial substitution with plant-based oils and marine by-products to contain feed expenses.
Beyond its steep price rise, fish oil’s trade dynamics and by-product utilisation reveal further insights. Between 2014 and 2024, EU imports of fish oil fell by 28% to 144.000 tonnes, with Peru, Norway and the United States as the principal suppliers. Over the same decade, EU exports dipped only 6% to 137.000 tonnes, of which some 77% was shipped to Norway and a further 15% to the United Kingdom.
Equally notable is the growing role of processing by-products in fish-oil production. In 2023, just over half (54%) of global fish oil was derived from by-products such as heads, skins, bones and viscera-up markedly from reliance on whole fish a decade earlier.
By region in 2024, by-product-sourced fish oil totalled around 675 000 tonnes: Asia led with 41 per cent (predominantly from pangasius trimmings at 69 per cent of its by-product output), Europe followed with 21 per cent (chiefly salmon by-products at 62 per cent) and Latin America accounted for 19 per cent (salmon by-products again dominant at 66 per cent).
This shift not only reduces waste-processing by-products can amount to 30-70% of fish’s weight-but also helps to stabilize overall output, sustaining annual fish-oil volumes of around 1.2 million tonnes despite quota-driven constraints on whole-fish catches. Such developments underscore how innovation is resource valorization is reshaping the fish-oil market alongside changing supply-demand and regulatory pressures.
Looking ahead, the study warms that feed markets are likely to remain turbulent as fishing quotas and environmental regulations continue to constrain raw-material supplies, sustaining upward pressure on prices.
At the same time, producers are expected to accelerate investment in novel feed formulations -embracing alternative ingredients and biotechnological innovations designed to reduce reliance on costly fish oil without sacrificing nutritional quality.
Against this backdrop, evolving sustainability certifications and stricter marine-management policies will further tighten the availability of traditional resources, while any continued escalation in feed costs may ultimately be passed through to consumer prices for farmed fish, challenging the sector’s competitiveness against wild-caught and land-based protein sources.
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