Market position and industry characteristics

Skretting is the number one feed supplier for all principal salmon farming markets with a global market share of about 38%. The top three salmon feed producers including Skretting, EWOS (32%) and Biomar (22%) account for more than 90% of the total global salmon feed market volume.
The production of fish feed needs its own knowledge and R&D requirements. First because of the complexity of the extrusion process needed for fish feed production. Secondly due to the required knowledge on raw materials that is essential to replace scarce raw materials like fishmeal and fish oil in the formulation.
Fish farming has gone through rapid development during recent decades, in pace with higher growth of fish consumption compared to other animal-derived proteins. The principal markets for salmon and seawater trout are Norway and Chile, where 80% of the global farmed salmon is harvested. Other principal countries for farmed salmon are Scotland, Canada, Australia, the USA and Ireland. The average annual growth in salmonid feed in 1998-2009 was more than 5% on average. In 2008 and 2009 we saw a global decline in salmon feed volumes as an enduring consequence of the ISA virus in Chile in salmon farming. ISA is a disease which has led to a substantial reduction in the production of Atlantic salmon in 2009. However, the decline in Chile was largely balanced by growth in Norway and the other regions.
In the feed industry for farmed marine species such as sea bass, sea bream, yellowtail and barramundi, many feed players are operating on a regional or national scale. Nutreco has strong market positions in feed for marine species in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the USA, Australia and Japan. With the acquisition of Fri-Ribe in 2009, a leading position in Brazil for shrimp and tilapia feed was also added.

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