IFFO's President Adriana Giudice opened The Marine Ingredients Organisation's Meeting held in Madrid from 27th-29th April 2026.
Photo: IFFO, The Marine Ingredients Organisation.
IFFO, The Marine Ingredients Organisation, concluded its 2026 Members' Meeting yesterday, which was held this week in Madrid. With record attendance—277 delegates from 35 countries gathered for an in-depth discussion on the global marine ingredients value chain—the meeting reaffirmed the need for collaboration and coordination, particularly amid today's complex geopolitical and regulatory landscape, and in a context of high scrutiny over the sector.
Recognized as an industry increasingly backed by scientific evidence and as one of the few where clear progress is being made—driven by initiatives such as MarinTrust, which recently launched a new version of its Chain of Custody standard to strengthen the traceability of certified marine ingredients—at the opening of the event, IFFO President Adriana Giudice highlighted the importance of providing that same clarity and transparency while also raising awareness about how they contribute to global nutrition and future food security.
The event focused on science, sustainability, and a proactive sector-wide approach—the fundamental pillars underpinning the organization's work. Thus, throughout the two-day event, the discussions underscored the importance of science-based decision-making and common metrics for accurately demonstrating the value and progress of the marine ingredients sector.
Petter Martin Johannessen, Executive Director of IFFO, also emphasized this in his speech. "Scientific consensus is gradually catching up to the nuances we have long emphasised," he said. "The diversification of feed ingredients over the past two decades has broadened supply but often introduced higher emissions. The aquafeed sector's current challenge lies in unifying around common metrics and this is also a huge opportunity for our sector."
Thus, participants at this year's event—it is the second year in a row that The Marine Ingredients Organisation has chosen the Spanish capital for its annual Members' Meeting—had access to expert presentations by 18 speakers from across the marine ingredients value chain, and perspectives on fishing and sustainability frameworks, as well as the latest market forecasts, regulations, and technological developments.
On the first day, a highlight was the presentation by Professor Ray Hilborn, a fisheries scientist at the University of Washington, who, speaking remotely, provided an updated overview of global fish stock assessments, noting that small pelagic fisheries remain, on average, stable and above maximum sustainable yield, although climate change continues to reshape productivity and distribution.
Regarding the growing threat of climate, Hilborn commented on the anti-fishing movement, noting that while this is often driven by genuine conservation concerns, the increasing funding needs of environmental NGOs are often driving negative media.
In response, he summarized a recent biodiversity paper, which showed that "in order to replace all animal protein from marine fisheries, an addition 5 million km2 of land could be required. While replacing all fish in aquaculture diets would result in the need for over 47,000 km2 of new land converted to agricultural production. Finally, eliminating only whole-fish from fishmeal production would require over 20,000 km2 of new land."
Likewise, his analysis reinforced the importance of sustainable harvest limits, adaptive management and evidence-based dialogue in rebuilding and maintaining healthy fish stocks. Professor Hilborn explained that with "small pelagic fishes, generally recruitment drives biomass, not biomass driving recruitment and thus we can't control the trends in the stocks much, nature is mostly in the drivers sea."
That same day, while discussing recent trends in feed research and innovation, Nofima's Research Director, Dr Erik-Jan Lock, presented the evolving landscape of feed ingredients in aquaculture, highlighting the most notable shift toward an increasing reliance on terrestrial ingredients, while other alternatives, such as insect meal, single-cell proteins, and even seaweed, have gained visibility in public discourse as promising sustainable options.
"The introduction of carbon footprint and life cycle analysis reporting has transformed how aquafeed ingredients are evaluated. Since 2019, salmon aquafeed carbon footprints have been reduced by around 40%, primarily through improved sourcing strategies. Insects meals have quite a high footprint and several companies have now gone bankrupt. As opportunities for further reductions within existing ingredient categories diminish, the focus is moving toward new alternatives like low-trophic marine ingredients like macroalgae, blue mussels, tunicates (which are very slow at scaling) or circular ingredients. As for animal by-products, we see high variability in their digestibility," Lock explained.
Like Hilborn, Nofima's Research Director also touched on climate change, noting how it is increasing the vulnerability of feed ingredients, and emphasizing that contingency planning is essential, while pointing out that, although it should be, it is not being driven by governments. "Evolving sustainability standards and rising market expectations for transparency have become the major forces driving innovation in novel feed ingredients," he said.
"Terrestrial ingredients are now more on the backfoot and the time could be right to develop a more diversified product portfolios, with speciality products that can really help with diet formulations. Fishmeal is much more than just a good protein source and fish oil is more than a just a good omega-3 fatty acid source. They have a key role to play in the precision nutrition approach," Dr Erik-Jan Lock concluded.
On the second day of the IFFO 2026 Members' Meeting in Madrid, discussions focused on the use of marine ingredients in animal farming, human health, and growing sustainability demands in feed, beginning with an industry that is often in the spotlight: salmon farming. Carl-Emil Kjølås Johannessen, from the investment bank Pareto Securities, presented the complexities facing investors and producers, ranging from the impacts of tariffs and biological challenges to the emergence of new technologies.
Johannessen said that, as seafood continues to outperform other animal proteins, the salmon market has grown 3.8% per year since 2006, and seafood in general has grown 2.4% annually, both outperforming other animal proteins with 1.9% annual growth. He also noted that "while demand in the US and European markets has slowed since 2002, it is growing in Asia, most notably China, where at this pace they are set to consume 1/10 kilo of salmon produced globally in 2030."
As for wider fed aquaculture, Ragnar Nystøyl, from Kontali, summarized the main and recent trends, without neglecting the long lines in aquaculture. Nystøyl said that "fed aquaculture is still experiencing growth, albeit at a lower growth rate then seen be over the past years." In highlighting key growth areas, he noted that Ecuador leads in terms of volume growth in Vannamei shrimp aquaculture, and that farmed Atlantic salmon experienced a surge in 2025, driven by increased productivity and high sea temperatures.
Regarding tariffs, Nystøyl added that they have had varying impacts on the industry, altering export flows and creating new obstacles. He concluded by stating that the fed aquaculture market will endure, as demand will continue to exist, but global political instability—which creates logistical challenges and disruptions—will lead to costs and complications throughout the value chain.
Jorge Díaz Salinas, Sustainability and Communications Director at Skretting, spoke from the perspective of a feed producer, outlining the benefits and challenges of using blended oils in aquaculture. He noted that, while these oils offer an excellent solution for meeting the nutritional needs of fish during times of scarcity, they also present challenges in ensuring their traceability and sustainable sourcing.
"Traceability is essential for responsible marine oil sourcing. When we don't report the use of marine ingredients on the blended oils, we don't really know what we're using in the feed and therefore there's a big risk—an unnecessary risk—for everyone in the value chain," Díaz summarized.
The day concluded with a panel discussion exploring the role, performance, and sustainability of marine and alternative feed ingredients in aquaculture, but first, Maggie Xu, China Director of The Marine Ingredients Organisation, gave a presentation in which she discussed the sector’s steady growth in China.
Xu explained that Chinese imports of fishmeal and fish oil reached an all-time high in 2025, when tight profit margins led to a year-over-year decline in domestic production. Last year, Chinese consumption of fishmeal and fish oil remained at the high levels seen in 2024, while a decline is expected this year. As for marine catches, they are slightly higher than in 2024, but in 2025, fewer wild catches were used in the production of marine ingredients in response to the new fisheries law promoting sustainability.