Industry analysis

Peter Green, founder of Paxtier – an algae tech innovation newsletter and community – shares his thoughts on the sector’s most promising startups and some of the key emerging trends.

Enos Were, the managing director of Jewlet Fish Farms, is a pioneer who has transformed East Africa’s aquaculture industry by training countless fish farmers, researchers and government officials, as well as developing his own successful independent farm.

Alternative proteins are often cited as being better – environmentally, ethically and nutritionally – than farmed seafoods, but the reality is much more complex and far less clear-cut than some alt-protein evangelists realise.

There are those who argue that farming is a way of life and not a business, but in today's modern, competitive and global agriculture/agribusiness environment, that mindset is the quickest way to lose money.

Bert Wecker, founder of Neomar, believes that farming tropical shrimp in temperate countries is on the verge of being highly profitable, and that the sector is all set for expansion, both in Europe and North America.

Senegal needs to step up its domestic oyster aquaculture sector to better meet domestic demand, according to Amy Gaye, FISH4ACP’s national professional officer in Senegal, who has been working on a new project for FISH4ACP.

Post-Brexit regulations are posing a threat to one of the UK’s oldest aquaculture sectors, in the Menai Strait – where mussel harvests have dropped from 7,500 tonnes in 2016 to around 400 tonnes in 2022.

For decades China has been the world’s largest exporter of seafood but, in the space of 12 months – following a 30 percent rise in imports – it has become a net importer, heralding a genuinely pivotal moment in the seafood sphere.

Côte d’Ivoire needs to step up its domestic tilapia production in line with domestic demand, according to a recent interview with Fougnigué Traoré, FISH4ACP national professional officer in Côte d’Ivoire, following the publication of a new report.

Farmed seaweeds have huge potential to be used for a wide range of industrial applications – not just for high value products – once production techniques have improved and farming upscaled.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly relevant in aquaculture research and production in recent years – with both startups and established companies developing new AI-based applications for the industry.

Researchers from the UK and Italy met in early February at a workshop in Sardinia aiming to identify and prioritise the challenges and research needs for aquaculture development on the Mediterranean island.

A delegation from the government of Uganda recently visited some of Brazil’s top tilapia farmers, feed producers and regulators, as they seek to grow their own aquaculture sector.

How to measure and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ten commodities, including farmed salmon and shrimp, are the subjects of a recent series of reports from WWF.

While seaweed processing and product development are receiving the most investments, research from Hatch Innovation Services suggests that limited availability of biomass is the biggest bottleneck in the industry – indicating that production deserves more doll…

Victory Farms might have achieved a great deal in their first seven years, but – as company CEO, Joseph Rehmann, explains in the second part of the article – fresh challenges and opportunities await.

The shrimp sector is in for a difficult year, with many of the smaller farmers likely to go out of business, according to Rabobank’s latest Global Aquaculture Update, which was published this week.

A new report by Rabobank, published this week, warns that the growth of Norway’s salmon farming sector is extremely vulnerable to the resource rent tax proposed by the government.

Reaching 10,000 tonnes of tilapia production within eight years of being founded is no mean feat – especially in a poverty-stricken country with an extremely limited aquaculture ecosystem – but it’s only the tip of the iceberg, according to Joseph Rehmann, CEO…

Angela Odero, CEO and co-founder of Rio Fish Limited, is on a mission to end the sex-for-fish trade in Kenya, (whereby women traders are sexually exploited by predatory fishermen) - through market linkages so that women traders can access an adequate, convenie…

Norwegian salmon farmers have enjoyed a decade of unprecedented profitability, but plans to introduce a 40 percent resource rent tax on the sector - combined with the emergence of new systems for growing salmon in different regions - could undermine the volume…

Pat Reynolds, one of the world’s preeminent lumpfish researchers, believes that – despite a number of welfare issues and a slight dip in their popularity – the species merits a prominent place in the list of ways to control sea lice on salmon farms.

Following the launch of a new tilapia welfare assessment programme in China, IQC’s Conglong Li and Sisi Xie explain why they are working with FAI to raise awareness of its importance – both for ethical and economic reasons.

Stacy Ann Gray has spent over 15 years as an aquaculture extension officer at Jamaica’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, where her achievements include setting up an oyster farm and the country’s first seaweed farm.

With two crops of mussels now in the water, it’s a question of keeping ones boat and buoys afloat for another six months – which isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds.