THE CHALLENGES
AND OPPORTUNITIES
FOR AQUACULTURE
IN THE MEDIUM AND
LONG TERM
RICHARD SLASKI
SCOTTISH AQUACULTURE RESEARCH FORUM
SARF
Topics for today

Aquaculture – the requirement

Aquaculture – the opportunities

Aquaculture – the challenges

Plus ca change?
The World Needs More Food
Relevance to UK and EU?

Our populations are relatively stable

But we import the majority of our seafood from 3rd
countries:


Norway

China

USA

Argentina

Thailand

Vietnam
What happens if these sources become more difficult?
“EU
importers struggle as Thai shrimp prices leap” – April 2013
EU Struggling with Capture Fish
And Aquaculture!
Global Picture is Better
The Requirement – and the
Opportunity


Neil, Tom, Dan and Alex have given us some vision for the
future, and to briefly reiterate, we need more production
from our oceans because:

Commercial fisheries have reached a plateau

Our terrestrial land is – ultimately - valuable for high energy
cereal crops

Freshwater is globally limiting

The world’s population continues to grow
We need to develop a “Marine Agronomy”

Food – of course, especially proteins and lipids

Energy - biofuels

Chemicals

Etc
The Challenges - Current
The SARF R&D Database
(www.sarf.org.uk)
Aquaculture research
projects commissioned
between 1994 and 2013
(Mainly UK and Europe)
Any Trends in 2 Decades?
Blue Biotech is
emerging
All the other
topics remain
relatively
consistent
(The exact
details of the
challenges
may evolve /
change)
Always Challenges with Animal
Production
For Example:

How many thousands of years have we been growing terrestrial
food animals?

Estimated veterinary research spend in 2010: £127 million

Equivalent aquaculture categories: £3.4 million


2.6% of the total – for 5% of the production
The point being that the exact nature of ‘challenges’ may
change and evolve – but challenges themselves do not
diminish
Looking Ahead for
Aquaculture

Alex has set the scene very well

“The scarcity of suitable production sites can potentially be the most
limiting factor to future production growth in the salmon aquaculture
industry.”

Frank Aschea, Atle G. Guttormsenb, Rasmus Nielsenc, 2013

This is talking about salmon, but it’s probably true for most other
species – and probably true globally as well as in UK and EU

Change and development will be steady and incremental – and will
only happen if profit can be made

State aids rules make things like feed in tariffs difficult for food production

But Structural Funds – EMFF – can help with pilot/demonstration and derisking projects
Crystal Ball

Technology developments will be critical

We will see more input from engineers

We will see more development of technical standards

Health, welfare, food safety, containment, interactions,
stock improvements, breeding programmes, etc will all
remain important topics for research and problem-solving

Nutrition will evolve:

Most animals are ‘fed’ on something

But for finfish, there is a need to move further down the food
chain in terms of raw materials

Over the longer term, and always ensuring good animal welfare
and good nutritional value/quality for consumers
Closing Thoughts

Exciting times ahead

There will be more collaboration opportunities

Industry sectors

Research fields

Regulators and public sector

But Festina Lente

And Plus ca change

Thank your for your attention!