New Zealand farmed salmon consume a diet of food pellets specially blended for King salmon with fishmeal and fish oil, with some producers also incorporating plant proteins and oils and by-products from the poultry and meat industries, from animals raised for human consumption.

There has been a huge investment by the international aquaculture industry to reduce the reliance on marine resources in salmon feed and great progress has been made over the past decade.

As a result, the New Zealand salmon farming industry now produces more fish protein than it consumes, with some producers achieving conversion rates better than 1:1.19  (fish protein in: fish protein out).

By comparison, wild salmon consume between 10 and 20 tonnes of wild fish per tonne of salmon produced.

The  wild fish protein used in feed production is sourced primarily from the well managed and sustainable Peruvian anchovy fishery (www.fishsource.org).

Feed production companies Skretting, Ridley and Biomar supply the majority New Zealand’s salmon feed.

Read Skretting’s full report: The use of Marine Resources in New Zealand Salmon Farming (PDF)