Wood for food: Economic impacts of sustainable use of forest biomass for salmon feed production in Norway

Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal food producing sector in the world with an annual growth rate of 7%. In Norway alone production of this industry is projected to expand from 1.2 million tons today to 5 million tons by 2050, implying a rapid increase in the demand for sustainable salmon feed alternatives to conventional feed resources such as fish meal and fish oil. Yeast produced from nonfood resources such as wood can serve as a high-quality protein source for farmed fish. In this study we analyze how commercial wood-based feed production in Norway using softwood chips from roundwood and sawmill residues will influence wood fiber prices. Such production will have to compete for wood fiber with wood-based bioenergy in particular, and the analyses were done assuming three main scenarios of expected global consumption of wood for bioenergy. The first scenario (Base) assumes a modest use of wood-based bioenergy reflecting the EU climate mitigation target for 2030. The second (MaxEnergy) and third (MaxEnergyLowRes) scenarios assume using bioenergy at a scale sufficient to fulfill IPCC's 2 °C climate mitigation target, with the only difference that in the MaxBio scenario tree stump utilization is allowed in Europe and USA. The bio-economic global partial equilibrium model EFI-GTM was applied to assess the economic impacts. Yeast production from wood in Norway could be able to pay from 37 to 64 euro/m3 of wood delivered mill site, the large variation depending on the yeast production costs other than wood biomass and the price of alternative fish feed resources. Other factors e.g. improved salmon health due to using wood-based yeast and environmental policy regulations of soya meal productions may increase this paying ability. To get 3 million m3 of wood per year during the period 2020–2030 for producing 330 t yeast it would be necessary to pay about 54, 47 and 55 euro/m3 in the scenarios Base, Bio and BioLowRes, respectively. The wood quantity supplied to the salmon feed production from additional Norwegian harvest will be rather low. If production of wood-based yeast for fish feed proves to be viable in Norway, it is likely to be attractive also in other aquaculture regions like North- and South America and Scotland, implying increased wood demand and higher wood prices than estimated above. Microbial ingredients like yeast produced from non-food biomass such as wood, offer potentials for commercial production. However, the present costs of producing yeast from lignocellulosic biomass may still be too high, and there is a need to develop more efficient processes for economic utilization.