Aquaculture makes salmon a “winning protein”
“There is no seafood
that can match farmed salmon’s fresh year-round availability, health benefits
and value,” – RaboResearch Food and
Agribusiness analysis.
By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews
Aquaculture has made salmon one of the world’s most popular
seafood products contributing to the fish’s status as a “winning protein” around
the world, says a new report from Rabobank.
But the industry needs to reposition farmed salmon from
being a “luxury” food item to being the leading healthy, sustainable and affordable protein for
sustained growth, said the report entitled “Keeping
Salmon on the Top of the Menu”.
“There is no seafood that can match farmed salmon’s fresh
year-round availability, health benefits and value,” study co-author Gorjan
Nikolik told SeaWestNews in a telephone interview from the Netherlands.
“Because of aquaculture, there is no seasonality for salmon and
this provides for consistent supply and quality throughout the year,” he said.
“From a global market perspective 80 percent of all salmon
consumed is farmed Atlantic salmon,” he told SeaWestNews.
The report said advanced logistics and cold-chain systems
enable farmed salmon to be delivered fresh from large-scale production sites in
Norway, Scotland, Canada, and Chile to all Western markets.
“No other seafood species can replicate this in Western markets,”
concludes the report by RaboResearch Food and Agribusiness
This unique value chain capability enables the farmed salmon
industry to create new moments of consumption, and also to be a leader in trend-based
product development, said the report, which is co-authored by, Beyhan de Jong,
an associate analyst with Rabobank, a Dutch multinational banking company.
“For instance, sushi has been an important contributor to
salmon’s success, and recently, salmon poke bowls are becoming very popular as
a ready-to-go or healthy fast food option. Currently, salmon is even emerging
as a breakfast food, typically a segment of the market where seafood is least
represented
Other farmed seafood
categories such as seabass and seabream or tilapia and pangasius have not
managed to create the same value proposition as salmon, due to their smaller
size and low fillet yields, said the report.
According to the report, demand for salmon is growing
through new markets and new products.
Currently, the European Union as a whole is the biggest
market for Atlantic salmon. It is the third-most consumed seafood species after
tuna and cod, but it is the category that experienced the highest demand growth
in the last decade.
For instance, in Spain, salmon has been the only seafood category
that has grown in consumption in the last few years.
In Germany, salmon is now the most popular seafood choice.
The consumption of salmon started with smoked salmon in the German market,
continued with sushi, and now fresh fillets and many different categories of
salmon are also prevalent.
The US, the second-largest market for farmed salmon after
the EU, also shows strong growth potential, especially in central parts of the
country, where salmon consumption is the lowest.
In the last couple of years, farmed salmon has overtaken
canned tuna consumption to become the second most preferred seafood category
after shrimp in the U.S.
But most of the new salmon customers are in emerging economies
such as China and Brazil, according to the report.
“Salmon fits Chinese consumers’ expectations for high-end,
foreign, healthy, and modern food. Salmon consumption in Brazil, known for high
consumption of animal proteins, has also grown rapidly in the last decade, and
the expectation is that it will keep increasing going forward, with the
adoption of the more convenient pre-packed fillet products.”
The report said aquaculture has pushed salmon for a sizeable
share of the centre of plate with efficient feed conversion ratios, no apparent
animal welfare issues, perceived health benefits, modern appeal, versatility, and
convenient product offerings.
However, it cautioned that with emerging alternative protein
products, the competition may get tougher in established or new markets.
“The future competitor of salmon for the centre of the plate
may not be a fish or an animal, but a completely new category – one we now
barely have a name for and only loosely define as alternative proteins,” said
the report.
Salmon farmers need to keep innovating, and always be the
leaders in consumer perception by producing a healthy and sustainable protein,
the report stated.
“This is necessary in order to retain its status as the
affordable luxury protein. If this does not happen, it will open the door to
alternatives and competing products, which could cost the aquaculture sector a
large part of its demand growth,” it concluded.
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