Fish is becoming increasingly popular as a food in Austria, at the same consumers place an increasing value on local production. Important raw materials for fish feed production, such as fish meal and fish oil, are currently mainly sourced from marine fisheries, especially from South America. The import of these raw materials causes high transport emissions and contributes to overfishing of the seas. Furthermore, aquaculture companies are struggling with rising prices for fish feed due to the increasingly scarce availability of fish meal and fish oil.
Regional fish feed production as a possible solution
Sustainable fish feed made from regional raw materials is therefore of high potential. In order to produce and sell it in sufficient quantities, several aspects must be taken into account, such as ingredients, technical feasibility or sales opportunities.
In the AquaFeed project, practice, research and consulting have joined forces to elaborate possible solutions. In a feasibility analysis, we are investigating what is needed to produce and sell a regionally produced, sustainable and affordable fish feed for predatory fish such as trout in Austria. This includes determining the status quo of innovative technologies, bringing together the results of previous and ongoing research projects, examining technical and logistical feasibility and analyzing the marketability of a fish feed that also meets high quality requirements.
Project goals
Recommendations will be derived from the obtained project results, as the basis for further steps towards regional fish feed production. This will promote sustainability, profitability and resilience of regional aquaculture farms and strengthen the circular economy in the sector.
This project is financed as part of the departmental research program via dafne.at with funds from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management. The BML supports applied, problem-oriented and practice-oriented research in the department's area of expertise.
