Feeding salmon has never been more expensive, with a kilo of dry feed costing around $1.48/kg in Q1, up 10 percent from levels seen at the turn of the year.
Behind the increase are more expensive raw materials as well as rising costs for transport and energy.
“After a very turbulent 2021, where raw material, energy and shipping costs rose quite sharply, BioMar costs continued to rise sharply in Q1 2022 as a result of the Russia/ Ukraine situation,” BioMar wrote in its first quarter report.
Carl-Erik Arnesen, head of the feed factory Polarfeed, he did not rule out a doubling of feed prices during 2022 in interview at the end of April with SalmonBusiness sister publication, iLaks.
“Yes. Then we must hope that raw materials will be available,” Arnesen said.
Export
Some raw materials are more in demand than others. Wheat is the most important single ingredient in Mowi’s fish feed.
And wheat prices have risen sharply since the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine are respectively the world’s largest and the fifth largest exporter of wheat. Ukraine also accuses Russia of stealing large volumes of wheat from grain depots in port cities along the Black Sea.
Another, and very important ingredient in salmon feed, is soy bean meal. Here, however, prices have fallen back over the spring. The United States, Brazil and Argentina are by far the world’s largest exporters of soy bean meal.
