Dependence of Profitability on Time, Sector & Region across Aquaculture Value Chains in Norway

Abstract

About 71% of earth is covered in water and 96.5% of this water is held by the oceans. (USGS, 2019). However, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that only about 2% of this production comes from the oceans. (OECD, 2016) As the global population grows food security is becoming an increasing challenge. The world population is expected to rise from 7.4 billion in 2016 to 8.1 billion in 2025 (OECD, 2016). This means that global food security will present challenges to satiate world population demand for protein. Marine Harvest states that salmon is the most protein resource efficient biological produce. (Harvest, 2018). Protein resource efficient means how much animal food protein is produced from every unit feed protein fed to the animal. Salmon has a protein retention of 31% which makes it the most sustainable and efficient when compared to other food produce such as pork (18%), poultry (21%) and beef/cattle (15%) (Harvest, 2018). It also has the carbon footprint comparable to chicken. For every 2.9Kg of edible product per Kg CO2, making it far more efficient than pork and beef (Cermaq, 2012). This brings us to the importance of studying aquaculture.