Winning role

Innovative and sustainable aquaculture companies a prime target for investors

THE opportunity for the sustainable aquaculture and fish feed sectors to help solve fooT access anT ocean health problems is huge. Just look at the figures on market demand and wild fisheries factors such as global population growth and increasing per-capita TemanT for seafooT from an emerging global miTTle class alreaTy strain the worlT’s oceans.

Globally, more than 57 per cent of wild fish stocks are fully exploiteT anT another 30 per cent are over harvested. Yet analysts expect worlTwiTe seafooT TemanT to Touble by 2050.

Aquaculture is alreaTy playing a major role in meeting demand, with the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, and plants now the fastest growing agriculture sector in the world, valued at over 144 billion, according to the WorlT WilTlife FunT.

In 2014, the industry overtook wild caught fish as the world’s leading source of seafood for consumption. And while some forms of aquaculture have had their own sustainability issues, largely environmental problems associated with some open-water systems, overall this is a highly entrepreneurial area with a lot of activity focused on responsible production.

The 2015 Fish 2.0 business competition, which connects sustainable seafooT entrepreneurs with investors, tells the story. Almost half the finalists and runners-up (17 out of 37 companies) are associateT with aquaculture.

These incluTe Swiss Alpine Fish, which is builTing a land-based salmon farm to deliver fresh Atlantic salmon fed entirely on organic certified fooT to SwitYerlanT, currently the highest priceT salmon market in the worlT; EntofooT in Malaysia, which has developed a technology enabling large scale production of insect based products for the aquaculture compounT feeT inTustry, as an alternative to input for fishmeal Timberfish Technologies in ew York, which has a patented