The US-based company predicted growth in Europe through increased aquaculture activities in Norway and UK, which it said would likely be boosted by the European Commission’s Common Fisheries Policy Reform and Strategic Guidelines passed in April 2014.
According to Commission statistics, total EU aquaculture output has been more or less stable in volume since 2000, while global production has grown at nearly 7% per year.
The Commission hopes the policy reform will help Europe catch up by: reducing administrative burdens; improving access to space and water; increasing competitiveness and exploiting competitive advantages due to high quality, health and environmental standards.
In Europe, aquaculture accounts for about 20% of fish production and directly employs some 80,000 people.
Valued at $1.97bn (€1.79bn) in 2014, Grand View Research said use in aquaculture was still the largest segment within the fish oil market.
“In addition, increasing aquaculture production of salmon along with positive industry outlook on aquaculture in China owing to cheap labour and application growth is expected to stimulate market growth,” it wrote.
Asia Pacific is expected to see a “substantial rise” in volumes with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.4% from 2015 to 2022 due to the growing aquaculture sectors in China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh.
However the report also highlighted growth opportunities within fish oil for direct human consumption.
“Demand in direct human consumption was 92.7 kilo tons in 2014, and is expected to witness growth as a result of growing consumption for supplements and functional foods,” it said.
“Growing consumer awareness regarding high content of protein and health benefits such as reducing cholesterol levels of the product is expected to fuel growth.”
In Europe there are approved health claims for EPA and DHA for normal heart function and blood pressure and for DHA for brain function and development and vision.
Rising awareness of nutritional benefits in emerging economies like China and India was also expected to fuel demand for fish oil supplements.
For this reason growth was also expected in North America, which accounted for over 7.5% of the global volume market share for fish oil in 2014.
“However, high consumption of red meat in the US and Mexico on account of their high protein content is expected to have a negative impact on the market over the next seven years,” said the report.