How Can Black Soldier Fly Can Help The Fishmeal Industry

     Black Soldier Fly are a sustainable replacement or ingredient for fishmeal. Using Black Soldier Flies Larvae as a substitute feed (or in unison with Fishmeal) will lengthen the supply and mitigate the cost of fishmeal in the aquaculture industry. The problem that exists is fishmeal is an unsustainable finite resource that is subject to max catch quotas every year. According to Thefishsite.com the world only produces 6.3 million tons of fishmeal from roughly 33 million tons of whole fish and trimmings. (Explaining the production and consumption of fishmeal, 2020).

     Mainly exported from third world countries such as Peru and Chile where 70% of the fish meal produced are made from wild whole captured fish such as Menhaden, Anchovy, Herring, Pilchard. These fish are farmed from the ocean and are deemed not for human consumption. It is estimated that 90% of the fish used for fishmeal could be directed toward human consumption and is food grade quality. This directs 20 million tons of seafood away from the dinner plate every year and instead used for fishmeal production (Leschin-Hoar, 2020).

     In the next few decades as the UN has estimated by 2050 the world will need to expand food production by 70% to meet a world population of 9.1 Billion.This will create competition, while increasing the demand for these types of fish and raising the price of fishmeal ("Global agriculture towards 2050", 2020).

     Since the price of Fishmeal is already volatile because of the catch quotas it is hard for agriculture companies to forecast and plan for the future. The black soldier fly is the best option for replacement of these fish products because bugs are already part of their natural diet and meet the needed amino acid profile for digestibility and growth.

     The input to grow these Black Soldier Fly Larvae is free Bio-waste from local breweries who already are in the habit of giving their spent grains to farmers. The black soldier fly has a  life cycle of 30 days and eats every 5 minutes. They are almost a 1:1 feed to protein conversion making this the most efficient source of high quality protein. This in turn making the price less volatile than fishmeal and making agriculture companies more scalable and profitable.

References:

Thefishsite.com. 2020. Explaining The Production And Consumption Of Fishmeal. [online] Available at: <https://thefishsite.com/articles/production-consumption-of-fishmeal> [Accessed 6 June 2020].

Leschin-Hoar, C. (2020). NPR Choice page. Retrieved 6 June 2020, from https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/13/515057834/90-percent-of-fish-we-use-for-fishmeal-could-be-used-to-feed-humans-instead

Global agriculture towards 2050. (2020). Retrieved 6 June 2020, from http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/Issues_papers/HLEF2050_Global_Agriculture.pdf