Seafood production has been growing in India at the rate of four per cent per annum since 2012, and the country’s aquafeed demand is predicted to reach 7 million tonnes by 2017-18, according to a recent report released by Yes Bank.

Aquaculture production in India was 9 million tonnes in 2012-13 and rapid expansion of vannamei shrimp and fish farming has already led to a trebling of demand for aquafeed in a few short years to around 3.5 million tonnes. The cultured shrimp industry will continue to drive growth of the aquafeed industry at an expected rage of 5-6% per year.

However, India’s 26 feed mills meet less than half of the demand, and more than 56% of the requirement is imported, leaving considerable scope for future expansion of the feed industry.

Feed demand from shrimp and fresh water shrimp alone is currently around 1 million tonnes and India has 13 feed mills capable of producing feed for this sector, with a production capacity of 1.33 million tonnes. The current capacity for fish feed production is 1.55 million tonnes, whilst for freshwater fish feed it is 0.7 million tonnes and this latter sector is expected to grow by 5-6% in the near term.

The report finds that current market players and feed mill investors are looking to diversify their market options to increase feed capacity utilization.

Feed ingredients for freshwater aquaculture include cheaper options such as deoiled rice bran, wheat bran, cottonseed cake and groundnut cake. Fishmeal, squid meal, lecithin, cereal flour and fish oil are all used in prawn and shrimp feed formulations.

An Altech-2015 Global Feed survey estimated that production of aquafeed reached 41 million tonnes in 2014. The Yes Bank report found that India, along with the US, China and Brazil, are the leading aquafeed producers in the world with Asia Pacific accounting for more than 70% of aquafeed demand.

Source: Aseanseafood.org.  Read the full article here.