Fish farmers are focused on their role in ocean stewardship and addressing the sustainability of food systems, especially with climate change. Trout farmers, Kames Fish Farming Ltd. in Scotland, and salmon farmers, Salmones Aysén in Chile, have long been dedicated to caring for the waters where they raise their high-quality fish. Now, they are leading the way to improve their operations further to meet sustainability goals by joining Cargill’s SeaFurther Sustainability initiative.
The three key areas of SeaFurther are:
- Transforming raw materials: Working with customers and suppliers to identify and grow planet-friendly ingredients and find new ways to reuse byproducts.
- Innovating and enhancing: Focusing on ways to increase fish efficiency, getting the most out of production while using fewer resources and reducing the impact on the ocean.
- Safeguarding animal health: Developing fish nutrition that promotes and enhances the health and welfare of farmed fish and working with our customers to make sure fish in their care is managed to the highest standards.
“SeaFurther is a breakthrough approach to sustainable aquaculture – its impact will be more than just a drop in the ocean. We are setting our sustainability targets on the success of the whole production chain – which will encourage collaboration towards the common goal,” said Helene Ziv-Douki, president of Cargill’s aqua nutrition business. “Launched in salmon and trout, SeaFurther can also be applied to other species, where the impact will be even greater. The more our expertise grows between now and 2030, the more reductions we will be able to bring.”
The SeaFurther initiative combines Cargill’s leading nutritional knowledge with our supply chain expertise to create opportunities for our customers to implement significant reductions in carbon emissions in line with science-based targets. Cargill has built a system of data on their raw material suppliers and their customers, from which they can identify and implement options to reduce carbon emissions from raw material origin to fish at harvest for each customer. This creates a credible reduction pathway for each customer and then opens the opportunity to offset remaining emissions to create a net-zero fish, which has a strong market appeal. Managing down carbon emissions in this way will support sustainable aquaculture development as called for by the Blue Food Assessment.
Dave Robb, program lead for Cargill’s SeaFurther Sustainability initiative, said that “SeaFurther has created vertical collaborations with our suppliers and customers and horizontal collaborations within Cargill. Aligning on a common carbon reduction goal makes the message simple, but SeaFurther supports much more than just the carbon goal for sustainable aquaculture. The premise is based on creating a common approach and data to deliver sustainable supply chains for feed and farming.”
Cargill has already identified “hot spots” where these companies can immediately improve their operations to help reduce carbon. For example, in the short term, feeds were formulated with the same nutritional properties as previously required by the customers but with a lower carbon footprint. This means that fish fed these feeds will grow as well as before, but with fewer carbon emissions. In addition, over the next few years, Cargill will work with its suppliers to produce raw materials with lower emissions. These can then be used in the new formulations – bringing further reductions in line with the 2030 goal.
Carbon credits from Cargill’s carbon trading desk could then be coupled to this reduction pathway, creating a credible net-zero fish, in line with the Science Based Targets initiative draft guidance. This brings a strong product to the market – a net-zero carbon salmon or trout, with a clear reduction pathway to lower emissions each year.
“We recognize our role as providing a solution to the ocean’s recovery while feeding the increasing population and understand the responsibility that farming in the sea entails. We are proud to lead the way for reducing emissions from the trout industry through this partnership with Cargill,” said Neil Manchester, managing director, Kames Fish Farming Ltd. “However, carbon efficiency resulting in reduced emissions will only be fully achieved if we work together across the whole supply chain, so it’s fantastic that this initiative and open communication is happening rapidly and at scale.”
“Salmones Aysén is a family-owned and operated company that is on the path to becoming a carbon-neutral player in the salmon industry. We have had a carbon-neutral production for a few years now. Adopting different policies on farming and processing our salmon, the company is changing its culture and growing into this new way of farming,” said Pablo Baraona, director of Salmones Aysén. “We have an ultimate goal to achieve not only a zero-emission salmon but also a sustainable and fair way of producing our fish. Our commitment comes from the very heart of the company because this is a conviction that the owners of the company have themselves: not only in this company but in life. Therefore, we have decided to commit to the SeaFurther initiative with Cargill to move forward with our shared objective, which we are convinced we will achieve in the coming years.’’
