BioMar sets targets for sustainability

FEED company BioMar has set out its ambitious targets for sustainability in a report, published today.
The Danish group, which has fish feed factories in Norway, Chile, Denmark, Scotland, Spain, France, Greece, Turkey and Costa Rica, has been committed to sustainable feed production for many years, and was involved in the development of the ASC standards for salmon and trout and in the development of the IFFO RS standard.
Carlos Diaz, CEO of the BioMar Group, said at the launch of the new report: ‘It is the first time we have published a global report on sustainability, and with this we commit to increased public transparency in our activities via annual disclosures in accordance with the GRI [Global Reporting Initiative] G4 framework.
‘An essential part of our commitment to increased sustainability is to minimise sustainability risks and support initiatives towards increased sustainability throughout the aquaculture value chain.
‘We recognise that what we do in our operations, the performance of our products, and how we source our raw materials affect our customers’ options to improve sustainability of their operations.
‘The GRI report has to be seen in this light as it creates transparency about our actions, both for our customers and other stakeholders.’
Diaz invited BioMar customers to enter into a closer dialogue on how to improve sustainability in aquaculture.
Roughly one out of five farmed fish produced in Europe and South and Central America is fed with BioMar fish feed. Worldwide, BioMar supplies feed to around 60 countries and to more than 30 different fish species.
According to the UN, the world’s population will need twice as much food and 30 per cent more drinking water, by 2050.
Simultaneously, the world’s agricultural production is projected to fall by 10 to 15 per cent in consequence of climate changes.
‘Aquaculture will be one of the most important elements in establishing sufficient food production and we have a great responsibility to ensure it happens in a sustainable way,’ said Diaz.
‘Aquaculture must become a pioneering model for sustainable food production.’
He also emphasised that the still more complex diets used in aquaculture both allow the industry to grow and contribute to an improved sustainability profile, but they also open new challenges as the new ingredients in the diets all must be evaluated in terms of sustainability.
‘It does not help if we replace scarce marine resources with ingredients which lead to deforestation. We need to make choices which do not just change the problem,’ he said.
In order to make the right choices BioMar has, within the BioSustain programme, developed a unique Eco-Efficiency tool, which can be used to evaluate not just the sustainability profile of diets, but which can also help fish producers optimise their production towards increased sustainability.
‘We have ourselves set some ambitious targets – for example, a reduction of CO₂ emissions from our production by 20 per cent per tonne of feed produced.
‘However, the largest environmental impact from fish feed production comes from the production of the feed ingredients – for instance, through the consumption of water or the utilisation of scarce resources.
‘Therefore, we want to allow our customers to take informed choices when it comes selecting fish feed, and our own goal is to make eco-efficiency an essential criterion in everything we do.’
The BioMar Group is wholly owned by the Danish industrial group Schouw & Co, which is listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange.