# Where does fishmeal come from?

Source: Commodity Origins, https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/fishmeal/ — data JSON: https://commodityorigins.com/data/commodities/fishmeal.json — license CC BY 4.0 (upstream data keeps its license; see Sources below).

The biggest exporter of fish and meat meal (HS 2301) is Peru (17% of world export value in 2024, CEPII BACI). The benchmark price, Any origin, 64-65% protein, CIF Hamburg, was $2,500/t in August 2026, up 43% from a year earlier (World Bank Pink Sheet). Fishmeal comes from wherever cold, nutrient-rich water pushes to the surface and feeds enormous shoals of small oily fish, which is why one upwelling off Peru, one shallow sea in northern Europe and one current off northwest Africa supply most of what the world trades.

*Dried, ground fish, mostly small pelagic species such as anchoveta, fed to farmed fish, pigs and poultry.* Also called: fish meal, fish feed, anchoveta meal, fish oil.

## Who exports and imports fishmeal?

Peru's anchoveta season sets the world price; Chile, Denmark, Morocco and Mauritania supply the rest, and China is the dominant buyer for its aquaculture industry.

### Exporters of flours, meals and pellets of meat or fish, unfit for human consumption (HS 2301), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peru | $1.6 billion | 17% |
| 2 | United States | $1.1 billion | 11% |
| 3 | Chile | $493.5 million | 5.2% |
| 4 | Denmark | $476.7 million | 5.1% |
| 5 | Russia | $312.3 million | 3.3% |
| 6 | Vietnam | $300.8 million | 3.2% |
| 7 | Germany | $293.1 million | 3.1% |
| 8 | India | $271.5 million | 2.9% |
| 9 | Spain | $266.4 million | 2.8% |
| 10 | Norway | $247.4 million | 2.6% |
| 11 | Thailand | $245.5 million | 2.6% |
| 12 | Iceland | $237.7 million | 2.5% |
| 13 | Brazil | $223.4 million | 2.4% |
| 14 | Poland | $215.6 million | 2.3% |
| 15 | Morocco | $212.8 million | 2.3% |

### Importers of flours, meals and pellets of meat or fish, unfit for human consumption (HS 2301), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $3.3 billion | 35% |
| 2 | Vietnam | $567.4 million | 6% |
| 3 | Norway | $436.7 million | 4.6% |
| 4 | Indonesia | $360.8 million | 3.8% |
| 5 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $313.5 million | 3.3% |
| 6 | Japan | $276.6 million | 2.9% |
| 7 | Thailand | $255.2 million | 2.7% |
| 8 | United States | $237.3 million | 2.5% |
| 9 | Germany | $237.1 million | 2.5% |
| 10 | United Kingdom | $233 million | 2.5% |
| 11 | Other Asia, nes | $193.9 million | 2.1% |
| 12 | France | $190 million | 2% |
| 13 | Canada | $184.3 million | 2% |
| 14 | Greece | $183.1 million | 1.9% |
| 15 | Italy | $178.7 million | 1.9% |

### Exporters of flours and meals of fish or crustaceans (HS 230120), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peru | $1.6 billion | 26% |
| 2 | Chile | $489 million | 7.8% |
| 3 | Denmark | $439 million | 7% |
| 4 | Russia | $311.7 million | 4.9% |
| 5 | Vietnam | $299.7 million | 4.8% |
| 6 | India | $269.5 million | 4.3% |
| 7 | Thailand | $241.7 million | 3.8% |
| 8 | Iceland | $237.5 million | 3.8% |
| 9 | Norway | $236.7 million | 3.8% |
| 10 | Morocco | $212.6 million | 3.4% |
| 11 | Mexico | $206.5 million | 3.3% |
| 12 | United States | $189.2 million | 3% |
| 13 | Ecuador | $113.6 million | 1.8% |
| 14 | Germany | $109.5 million | 1.7% |
| 15 | Mauritania | $97.9 million | 1.6% |

### Importers of flours and meals of fish or crustaceans (HS 230120), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $3 billion | 48% |
| 2 | Norway | $434.7 million | 6.9% |
| 3 | Japan | $273.7 million | 4.3% |
| 4 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $254.1 million | 4% |
| 5 | United Kingdom | $211 million | 3.3% |
| 6 | Other Asia, nes | $156 million | 2.5% |
| 7 | Vietnam | $144.6 million | 2.3% |
| 8 | United States | $137.7 million | 2.2% |
| 9 | Greece | $130.4 million | 2.1% |
| 10 | Spain | $123.8 million | 2% |
| 11 | Canada | $120.4 million | 1.9% |
| 12 | South Korea | $109.1 million | 1.7% |
| 13 | Germany | $103.2 million | 1.6% |
| 14 | Denmark | $102.3 million | 1.6% |
| 15 | Italy | $93.5 million | 1.5% |

Source: CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601).

The buying side is more concentrated than the selling side. China took 48% of world imports of fish meals by value in 2024, followed by Norway on 6.9%, Japan on 4.3%, Turkey (Türkiye) on 4% and United Kingdom on 3.3% (CEPII BACI). Chinese aquaculture and its pig sector absorb close to half the traded volume, so Chinese port stocks and buying interest are the demand-side variable everyone watches. On the broader HS 2301 basket, which includes meat meals, China took 35% and Vietnam 6% of $9.4 billion.

Several countries appear on both sides. Norway lands industrial species and makes meal, and also buys a great deal of it for salmon feed; Vietnam produces by-product meal from its pangasius and shrimp processing and imports higher-grade meal for the same feed mills; Denmark's plants in Skagen and Esbjerg run North Sea sandeel, sprat and blue whiting and ship meal into Norwegian and Scottish salmon feed. Peru and Chile are the pure exporters, selling almost everything they make, and West African plants in Mauritania and Morocco have grown into the trade on sardinella since the 2010s. Fish oil, pressed out during the same process, is a separate and far more valuable trade per tonne, sold into salmon feed and omega-3 supplements, and a plant's economics depend on both products together.


## What does fishmeal cost?

- Any origin, 64-65% protein, CIF Hamburg: $2,500/t in August 2026; 12-month change +43%; 10-year change +62%; all-time high $2,500/t in August 2026; real high (2024 US$) $2,608/t in January 2013 (World Bank Pink Sheet).

Prices are monthly benchmark averages that lag the market; not investment advice.

### How it is priced

Fishmeal has no futures contract. Prices are assessed by reporting agencies from physical deals, quoted in dollars per tonne either FOB Peru or CIF China and Northern Europe, and grades are defined by protein content, freshness and processing temperature. Peruvian meal is sold as super prime, prime, thermal or standard, distinguished by the total volatile nitrogen and histamine in the raw fish at landing and by drying method, since steam drying preserves amino acid digestibility that flame drying degrades. A cargo is specified by protein percentage, moisture, fat, ash, salt and sand, digestibility and antioxidant treatment, and it is sold in one-tonne bags or 50 kilogram sacks rather than in bulk holds.

The series used here is Any origin, 64-65% protein, CIF Hamburg, which stood at $2,500/t in August 2026, up 43% from a year earlier (World Bank Pink Sheet). That is also the series' nominal record, $2,500/t in August 2026; adjusted for US consumer prices the peak was $2,608/t in January 2013, so in real terms the earlier spike was the larger one. The low since the series began in 1979 was $254/t in July 1985. Over ten years the series was +62% and over five +66%.

Two things to hold apart when reading a fishmeal quote. First, meal made from whole fish and meal made from processing trimmings are not the same product: trimmings meal has lower and more variable protein, a different amino acid balance and less oil, and it trades at a discount, but it is the fastest-growing part of supply. Second, fishmeal's price ceiling is set outside its own market. Feed formulators can cut inclusion rates and substitute soybean meal, poultry by-product meal and synthetic amino acids for part of the protein, so the fishmeal-to-soybean-meal ratio, rather than the absolute price, is what determines how much demand survives a rally.


## What moves the price of fishmeal?

### Peru's quota decisions

Peru's research institute surveys anchoveta biomass before each of the two annual seasons and the fisheries ministry sets a catch limit, which it can cut, suspend or cancel if the survey finds too little fish or too many juveniles. Because Peru supplies about a quarter of the fishmeal that crosses borders, and because the decision arrives as an announcement rather than as a gradual shortfall, the price can move by double digits within days of a survey result. No other supplier can add volume quickly enough to offset it.

### El Nino and the Humboldt upwelling

In an El Nino year warm water pushes over the cold upwelling off Peru, the plankton bloom fails, and anchoveta scatter, move deeper or fail to spawn. The fishery has collapsed on this cycle before, most severely in the early 1970s. Forecasts of sea surface temperature anomalies therefore trade as supply forecasts months ahead of any actual shortfall, and the market prices the probability of a cancelled season rather than waiting for one.

### Chinese aquaculture demand

China buys close to half the fishmeal that crosses a border, for farmed shrimp, marine fish and eels and for piglet starter diets. Its port inventories are published and watched closely: a large stock overhang lets buyers stay out of the market through a Peruvian season, while low stocks force them to chase cargoes. Because a single country's purchasing decisions clear so much of world supply, Chinese demand can hold prices up through a good fishing season or cap them through a bad one.

### The soybean meal ratio

Feed formulators use fishmeal for its amino acid profile and palatability, not because it is irreplaceable, and they respond to price by cutting inclusion rates and making up the protein with soybean meal, poultry by-product meal and synthetic lysine and methionine. That substitution sets the effective ceiling on fishmeal. When the ratio of fishmeal to soybean meal prices widens far enough, formulations change within a feed season, and the demand lost does not return immediately when the price falls.

### By-product meal and novel proteins

A growing share of supply comes from trimmings left after filleting other fish rather than from directed fisheries, which adds volume without any new fishing effort but at lower and more variable protein. Alongside it, insect meal, single-cell protein, fermented bacterial biomass and algal oils have taken small shares of aquafeed formulations. Neither stream replaces whole-fish meal at scale, but both blunt the top of price spikes by giving formulators somewhere else to go.

### North Atlantic quota advice and coastal state disputes

The Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic reduction fisheries run on quotas set from scientific advice for sandeel, sprat, Norway pout, capelin and blue whiting, and those stocks fluctuate sharply with recruitment. Some are shared across national boundaries, and when coastal states cannot agree a sharing arrangement, the sum of unilateral quotas exceeds the advice. The result is a supply source that swings on committee decisions and stock assessments as much as on weather.

### Fish oil, the co-product

A reduction plant sells meal and oil from the same fish, and fish oil is worth several times more per tonne because salmon feed and omega-3 supplements compete for it. When oil is strong, plants can afford to buy raw fish that meal alone would not justify, which keeps meal supply flowing; when oil is weak, marginal plants stop. The two products also respond to different customers, so meal and oil prices regularly diverge even though their supply is fixed in a single ratio.

### West African access and food security politics

Plants in Mauritania, Senegal, the Gambia and Morocco have grown into the export trade on sardinella, buying fish that local markets also eat. That has drawn sustained criticism and periodic regulatory response, including restrictions on which species may be reduced and on foreign vessel access. Because the region has become a meaningful supplier, changes to access agreements or to landing rules there affect a market otherwise dominated by the South Pacific and the North Sea.

## How is fishmeal produced?

A reduction fishery is a race against decay. Anchoveta caught by purse seine are pumped into refrigerated seawater holds and must reach the plant within hours, because protein quality is measured by how little the fish has broken down: total volatile nitrogen and histamine rise from the moment of capture, and the difference between super prime and standard meal is set on the boat, not in the factory. Vessels land at plants strung along the coast, and the fish is pumped ashore and weighed.

In the plant the fish is cooked with steam at around 95 degrees Celsius, which coagulates the protein and ruptures the cells so that oil and water can be squeezed out. A twin-screw press separates a solid presscake from a liquid press liquor. The liquor is decanted and centrifuged into crude fish oil and a watery fraction called stickwater, which is evaporated down to a concentrate of about 40 percent solids and added back to the presscake; meal made this way is called whole meal and captures protein that would otherwise be discharged. The recombined cake is dried, either by indirect steam at low temperature, which preserves digestibility and is what prime grades require, or by direct flame at higher temperature, which is cheaper and degrades amino acids.

Dried meal is milled to a uniform particle size, treated with an antioxidant such as ethoxyquin or a tocopherol blend to stop the residual oil from self-heating in storage, cooled, and packed into 50 kilogram sacks or one-tonne bulk bags. Roughly a fifth to a quarter of the live weight of anchoveta becomes meal and about 5 percent becomes oil, the remainder leaving as water. Crude fish oil is separately refined, and where it is destined for supplements it is winterized, deodorized and concentrated into ethyl esters or triglycerides with elevated EPA and DHA content. By-product plants attached to filleting operations run the same steps on heads, frames and viscera, with lower and more variable yields.


## What is fishmeal used for?

Fishmeal used to be a pig and poultry feed and is now overwhelmingly an aquaculture ingredient. It goes into feed for farmed salmon and trout, marine fish such as sea bass and sea bream, shrimp, and eels, where its amino acid profile, palatability and digestibility let a formulator hit performance targets that plant proteins alone cannot reach, particularly in the first weeks of a fish's life. Its remaining terrestrial market is concentrated in the same place: piglet starter and broiler starter diets, where young animals with immature digestive systems need highly digestible protein.

The inclusion rates have fallen a long way. Salmon diets that were once built on fishmeal now use it as a minor ingredient alongside soy protein concentrate, rapeseed meal, poultry by-product meal and synthetic amino acids, and the same substitution has run through shrimp feed. Fish oil, the co-product, follows the opposite path: it remains hard to replace in salmon diets because of its long-chain omega-3 content, and it competes with the human supplement market for the same tonnes. Pet food takes a small premium share, and hydrolysates and fish protein concentrates made by the same industry are sold into aquaculture starter feeds and pet palatants.


## Supply chain and chokepoints

Processing sits on the beach. Peru's plants line the coast at Chimbote, Chancay, Callao, Pisco and Paita, close enough to the fishing grounds that a vessel can land within hours; Chile's cluster around Iquique and Talcahuano; Denmark's at Skagen, Hanstholm and Esbjerg; Norway's, Iceland's and the Faroes' at their own landing ports; and West Africa's at Nouadhibou and along the Moroccan and Senegalese coast. That geography is not a choice. Because raw fish quality falls by the hour, the plant must be near the boat, and the whole industry is therefore a set of coastal clusters with no ability to relocate when a fishery moves.

Meal moves in bags rather than in bulk holds, in containers or in bagged breakbulk parcels, from Callao and Chimbote across the Pacific to Chinese ports, to Vietnam and to Japan, and from Danish and Norwegian ports by short sea into Scotland, Norway and the Faroes. The Peru to China route carries the largest single flow, and container availability and freight rates on it are a real component of the delivered price. Fish oil travels separately in parcel tankers and in flexitanks.

The concentration runs in both directions and there is nothing behind it. One country supplies about a quarter of world fish meal exports from a single species in a single current system that fails on a climate cycle; one country buys close to half of what is traded. There is no futures contract to hedge with, no strategic reserve, and no substitute that matches the amino acid and omega-3 profile at the volumes aquaculture needs. The market's only real shock absorber is the feed formulator's ability to lower inclusion rates, which is a slow, partial and one-way adjustment.


## Key companies

- Tecnologica de Alimentos (TASA): processor, Peru
- Pesquera Exalmar: processor, Peru, listed
- Skretting: feed producer, Norway
- Cargill: feed producer, United States
- Thai Union Group: feed producer, Thailand, listed

## Timeline

- 1960: Peru's anchoveta boom makes it the world's largest fishing nation. A fishery that barely existed in 1950 became the biggest in the world within a decade, and created the reduction industry that still sets the world fishmeal price. (https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/el-nino-fish-tale)
- 1970: Peruvian anchoveta catches reach their historic peak. The peak defined the upper bound of what the Humboldt system can yield, a level no subsequent management regime has attempted to return to. (https://www.fao.org/4/y5852e/Y5852E07.htm)
- 1972: El Nino and overfishing collapse the Peruvian anchoveta fishery. The collapse of the world's largest fishery in a single season established that fishmeal supply is a climate variable, and it remains the reference event for the market. (https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/el-nino-fish-tale)
- 1995-10: FAO adopts the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. The code became the reference framework for the stock assessments and precautionary catch limits that now govern every major reduction fishery. (https://www.fao.org/iuu-fishing/international-framework/code-of-conduct-for-responsible-fisheries/en)
- 1998: El Nino cuts Peruvian anchoveta biomass to a fraction of normal. A second climate-driven collapse a quarter century after the first confirmed the pattern and pushed feed formulators to begin designing diets with lower fishmeal inclusion. (https://www.fao.org/4/y5852e/Y5852E07.htm)
- 2008: Peru gives its anchoveta fleet individual vessel quotas. Replacing a race to fish with allocated shares spread landings over months, improved the freshness of raw material and raised the average quality grade of Peruvian meal. (https://www.actualidadambiental.pe/historia-y-balance-como-se-ha-manejado-la-pesca-de-anchoveta-en-el-peru/)
- 2009: IFFO launches responsible supply certification for fishmeal plants. A plant-level standard gave salmon and shrimp feed buyers a way to specify sourcing, and split the market between certified and uncertified meal. (https://www.iffo.com/node/378)
- 2013-01: Fishmeal reaches its inflation-adjusted peak price. A short Peruvian season against rising aquaculture demand produced a real price that later nominal records have not exceeded. (https://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=fish-meal&months=300)
- 2016-07: Peru ends its first anchovy season early. The shortest season on record demonstrated that the quota system will stop fishing mid-season on survey evidence, which is now priced as a standing risk each year. (https://thefishsite.com/articles/record-short-first-fishmeal-and-fish-oil-season-in-peru)
- 2019-10: Investigation into West African fishmeal plants and local food security. Public scrutiny of plants reducing sardinella that local markets also eat brought regulatory attention to a fast-growing new supply region. (https://changingmarkets.org/report/fishing-for-catastrophe/)
- 2023: Peru cancels its entire first anchoveta season. A survey finding warm water and juvenile fish removed the world's largest single source of fishmeal for a whole season, and the price rose for the next two years. (https://weareaquaculture.com/news/feed/peru-closes-anchovy-season-with-unfulfilled-quota)
- 2026-08: Fishmeal reaches a record nominal price. Tight Peruvian supply against Chinese aquaculture demand pushed the assessed price to its highest nominal level, though still below the inflation-adjusted peak of 2013. (https://aquaculturemag.com/2026/08/31/perus-anchovy-fishery-crisis-a-systemic-alert-for-the-global-industry/)

## Frequently asked questions

### which country produces the most fishmeal

This page does not carry production-by-country data, because reduction-fishery output comes from FAO fisheries statistics that are not yet included here. On exports, Peru led in 2024 with 26% of the $6.3 billion traded, ahead of Chile on 7.8% (CEPII BACI).

### what is fishmeal made from

Small oily fish caught for the purpose, cooked, pressed, dried and ground into a powder of roughly 62 to 68 percent protein. Peruvian anchoveta is the largest single source, alongside sandeel, sprat, capelin, blue whiting, herring, menhaden and sardinella. A growing share is made from trimmings left after other fish are filleted, which trades at a discount.

### what is the price of fishmeal per tonne

Any origin, 64-65% protein, CIF Hamburg averaged $2,500/t in August 2026, up 43% from a year earlier (World Bank Pink Sheet). That is also the nominal record, $2,500/t in August 2026, though adjusted for inflation the peak was $2,608/t in January 2013. There is no futures contract, so prices are assessed from physical deals.

### why is fishmeal so expensive

Supply is capped by biology and by quota, not by price. Peru surveys anchoveta biomass before each season and can cancel it outright, and no other supplier can add volume quickly. The series was +62% over ten years and +66% over five to August 2026 (World Bank Pink Sheet). Demand from aquaculture keeps growing while the resource does not.

### who buys the most fishmeal

China imported 48% of world fish meal by value in 2024, far ahead of Norway on 6.9% and Japan on 4.3% (CEPII BACI). Chinese aquaculture and piglet feed absorb close to half the traded volume, so Chinese port stocks are the demand indicator the market watches.

### what is fishmeal used for

Mostly aquaculture feed, for farmed salmon, trout, sea bass, sea bream, shrimp and eels, where its amino acid profile and digestibility matter most in the first weeks of life. The remaining land-animal use is concentrated in piglet and broiler starter diets, and a small premium share goes to pet food. Inclusion rates in salmon and shrimp diets have fallen sharply over the past two decades.

### how much fishmeal comes from a tonne of fish

Roughly 200 to 240 kilograms of meal and about 50 kilograms of oil per tonne of whole anchoveta, with the rest leaving as water. Plants running trimmings from filleting operations get lower and more variable yields, and the resulting meal has lower protein than whole-fish meal and trades at a discount.

### why did Peru cancel the anchoveta season

Peru's research institute surveys anchoveta biomass acoustically before each season, and the fisheries ministry cancels or curtails fishing when the survey finds too little biomass or too high a share of juveniles, usually in warm-water years. It cancelled an entire first season in 2023, and the price rose steeply afterwards, reaching $2,500/t in August 2026 (World Bank Pink Sheet).

### what can replace fishmeal in feed

Feed formulators substitute soybean meal, soy protein concentrate, rapeseed meal, poultry by-product meal and synthetic lysine and methionine for part of the protein, and insect meal, single-cell protein and algal oils have taken small shares. None matches fishmeal's amino acid and omega-3 profile at scale, so substitution lowers inclusion rates rather than eliminating the ingredient.

## Sources

- CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601), BACI HS22 V202601, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Etalab Open Licence 2.0. https://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/bdd_modele_item.asp?id=37
- World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), 2026-09-02, fetched 6 September 2026. License: CC BY 4.0. https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/commodity-markets

Text last reviewed 2026-09-05. Cite as: Commodity Origins, "Where does fishmeal come from?", https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/fishmeal/.