Aquaculture & Sustainability Trends & Insights

Sustainable blue food systems are increasingly shaped by — and reshaping — seafood markets, investment flows, and public policy. This session explores how sustainability is moving from aspiration to infrastructure, becoming embedded in trade rules, procurement standards, investment criteria, and regulatory frameworks.

Interoperable traceability systems give producers access to high-value markets, and governments the transparency needed to support the fishing sector, strengthen livelihoods, and meet regulatory requirements. For global buyers, digital traceability reduces risk, improves supply chain resilience, and enables more direct sourcing. In this context, traceability is not an addon; it is the core infrastructure that underpins market access, quality assurance, and responsible production. Aligning incentives across the value chain — from small-scale fishers and farmers to major buyers — traceability creates accountability, reduces risk, and rewards responsibly harvested, high quality seafood. [Read More…]

Marine ingredients have played a vital role in assuring aquafeeds provide essential nutrition for farmed species, improving both growth and health. As part of this circular marine supply chain feed mills, farmers, and buyers across the globe have begun demonstrating commitments towards responsible sourcing of marine ingredients. While fishery-level certification has been a key tool, utilization of fishery improvement projects (FIPs) and by-products are other areas of focus. In this session, stakeholders across the marine ingredient supply chain will convene to evaluate current commitments and provide feedback on how stakeholders at all levels can better support these objectives.

Over the past five years, the E.U. fisheries and aquaculture market has faced an unprecedented sequence of shocks – the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and the Russian military aggression against Ukraine – each profoundly altering trade flows, consumer behavior, and supply chains.

• COVID-19 disrupted global logistics, forced a rapid shift from foodservice to retail, and exposed vulnerabilities in international seafood value chains.
  
  
• Brexit redefined trade relations and regulatory frameworks between the E.U. and the U.K., reshaping flows of key species and adding new administrative and cost burdens.
  
  
• The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had direct and indirect impacts – from sanctions on seafood imports and energy price spikes to feed cost inflation and broader macro-economic uncertainty. [Read More…]

Invasive species remain one of the largest threats to biodiversity, but market sourcing and use may provide a novel way to lessen the environmental harm of certain species while providing an environmentally sustainable, economical, and diversified supply chain to companies. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been working with key partners to test this concept across the pet food industry, launching and supporting the robust use of invasive carp in pet food. Come learn about that work as well as WWF’s newly published framework examining market use of invasive species more broadly; hear from Mars Petcare on private sector approaches to this framework and how this guidance can help companies better understand the issue; and meet Inversa Leathers, a sustainable start-up making fashion-grade leather from invasive lionfish, carp, and pythons for luxury brands in Paris, London, and New York, providing another example of market uses for invasive species.

There’s broad agreement that effective mechanisms for meaningful, ongoing worker engagement and remediation are essential for human rights due diligence, but such mechanisms do not yet exist in many parts of the world. The Certification and Ratings Collaboration (Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Fair Trade USA, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Marine Stewardship Council, and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership) has partnered with Issara Institute, a human and labor rights organization, to understand the realities of current and potential worker engagement mechanisms and worker access to them in five key seafood-producing countries in Asia. During this session, participants will hear about Issara Institute’s findings on the state of worker awareness of rights in the seafood sector, the effectiveness of existing mechanisms, barriers to effective grievance mechanisms, and recommendations for system strengthening that benefits both workers and responsible businesses. Participants will also learn about the collaboration’s guidance developed for the seafood industry (and other key stakeholders) in order to improve support for workers.

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production sector in the world, crucial for global food security. However, its growth has led to increased antibiotic use to combat bacterial diseases, raising concerns worldwide about antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The global effort to reduce antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance in aquaculture is motivated by a mix of factors, including regulatory pressures, consumer demand, market needs, and scientific progress. It is no longer a niche concern but a key part of building a sustainable and responsible seafood industry worldwide.

Consumers are becoming more conscious of the origins and production methods of their food. There is a growing demand for “antibiotic-free” or “sustainably farmed” seafood, particularly in key markets like North America and Europe. This shift in consumer preference has a direct impact on the entire supply chain. [Read More…]

In Morocco, approximately 800,000 tons of small pelagics are processed annually in canning factories. During filleting and peeling, cooked by-products – mainly skin, bones, and flesh – can account for up to 20 percent of the processed fish. Currently, these residues are often combined with raw by-products from other operations such as heading, evisceration, and gutting, and are primarily used for animal feed.

This study aims to valorize sardine (Sardina pilchardus) filleting by-products by converting them into fish flour suitable for human consumption. The resulting flour exhibits exceptional nutritional qualities, being rich in proteins (55–57 percent), essential amino acids, omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), vitamins, and minerals. It has significant potential for the development of functional foods. For example, incorporating this flour into pizza dough produced a formulation that was well received by consumers. [Read More…]