Shrimp, grass carp, and Nile tilapia round out the top three most-produced species in the booming global aquaculture industry. So, who can claim the title of No. 1 soy meal supplier to these hungry protein providers? You guessed it — you and your fellow U.S. soybean farmers.

Yet, there’s growing competition from soybean producers in South America and beyond. Now is the time for U.S. soy to keep building relationships with the aquaculture industry to maintain an edge and market access, experts say.

“Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production system globally, with an annual growth rate exceeding those of the poultry, pork, dairy, and beef industries,” explains Dr. Flavia Damasceno, Feed Formulation and Research and Development Specialist at Wittaya Aqua.

For the past four years, Dr. Damasceno and her colleagues at Wittaya Aqua have worked with the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) to deliver technical presentations, provide technical support to feed mills and aquaculture farms, optimize feed formulations for USSEC demonstration trials, and train hundreds of feed formulators.

“Between 1990 and 2020, total world aquaculture production expanded by 609 percent, with an average annual growth rate of 6.7 percent,” Damasceno continues. “Aquaculture represents a crucial means of meeting the increasing demand for food while addressing nutritional deficiencies and having a lower environmental impact than many other animal-based food sources.”

Water-Fed World

Protein raised with aquaculture is diverse and includes fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and aquatic plants. Staple species account for a majority of global production and include Pacific whiteleg shrimp (6.82 million tons produced annually), grass carp (6.15 million tons), and Nile tilapia (5.3 million tons), according to Damasceno, referencing 2024 research from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Other top species are silver carp, common carp, Indian major carps, including Catla and Rohu, Atlantic salmon, pangasid catfishes, and rainbow trout.

All that protein totals to 130.9 million tons annually, valued at $313 billion as of 2022, FAO reports. Asia accounts for nearly 90 percent of aquaculture production worldwide, Damasceno says. China ranks No. 1, followed by countries such as India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

“Aquaculture has thrived in tropical and subtropical regions due to favorable environmental conditions, availability of a variety of species with farming potential, and the socio-economic conditions in the region allowing for low-cost labor,” Damasceno explains.

Although global seafood production is expected to slow compared to the past decade, the sector is still on target to grow by 12 percent in the next 10 years, she says. That deceleration reflects the reality that more countries are passing policies that require sustainable fishery practices.

U.S. Soy Earns High Marks

There are several reasons feed buyers find U.S. soy meal so attractive. But at a high level, it boils down to physical traits, chemical composition, quality and nutritional value, economic value, and sustainability.

When buyers examine soy’s physical traits, they’re especially interested in the absence of foreign material and damage to the beans, Damasceno points out.

“As Aquaculture Feed Specialists at USSEC, we regularly visit feed mills that source soy products from various origins,” she says. “During these visits, our team observed notable differences in the physical characteristics of soybeans from the U.S. to other regions. U.S. soybeans typically exhibit a bright yellow uniform color, minimal foreign material contamination, and reduced levels of bean damage relative to soy from different origins.”

In the area of chemical composition, buyers seek to procure soy with high crude protein (CP) content levels. U.S. soy meal typically has higher CP content compared to Argentine meal, though Brazilian soy often exceeds both, Damasceno says, referencing research.

“Variability in CP is influenced by factors such as seed genotype, planting region, environmental conditions, and processing methods, particularly hull removal,” she explains. Other factors working in favor of U.S. soy include its higher sucrose and lower raffinose concentrations, which make feed easier for animals to digest.

Amino acids also work in U.S. soy’s favor, Damasceno says. U.S. and Argentine soy meal tend to have higher levels of lysine, sulfur, and threonine per unit of protein compared to meal originating from Brazil and India.

Research also suggests the quality and nutritional value of U.S. soy boosts fish production. An unpublished 2021 study found that “fish fed U.S. soy had the highest fillet yield compared to those fed Argentinian or Brazilian soybean meal,” she says. These attributes also create cost savings: high-quality beans mean aquaculture farmers don’t need expensive additives to supplement soy meal.

Cost-benefit analysis underscores the economic value of U.S. soy, helping aquaculture farmers meet all nutritional requirements throughout various species’ life cycles at the lowest possible cost. This can be attributed to the “superior balance of digestible amino acids” in U.S. soy, Damasceno says.

As for sustainability, U.S. soybean farmers’ balance of production and conservation puts meal originating from the country in the top class.

“U.S. soy is often considered more environmentally friendly due to its lower carbon emissions related to reduced impacts attributed to land use change (LUC) compared to soybeans from other origins where lands are changed to create cropland for farming soy,” she explains.

Maintaining An Edge

Just because U.S. soybean farmers maintain a competitive edge on multiple fronts doesn’t mean that standing is guaranteed. Damasceno points to several steps Illinois farmers can take to strengthen their position in the global aquaculture market.

First, consider how to optimize soy quality.

“Farmers of U.S. soy should continue to implement and maintain stringent quality controls during harvest and storage of beans that maintain the physical quality of the beans delivered to the crushing plants,” she advises.

Second, continue to advocate for and implement sustainability practices. As more countries require these practices, U.S. competitive advantage could slip.

“While U.S. soy remains the most consistent sustainable source today, other countries are under pressure to reduce impacts from land-use change, the major contributor to carbon footprint, and will improve the sustainability of their soy,” Damasceno says.

Competition also will emerge from places with the ability to cheaply transport soy to buyers in Asia and other aquaculture hubs.

“Emerging soy suppliers are looking to increase their soy production and export capabilities,” she points out.

Meet The Aquaculture Experts Serving U.S. Soy

Dr. Dominique Bureau (CSO & co-founder) Dominique has been the head of the University of Guelph’s Fish Nutrition Research Laboratory since 2001. He is a leading aquaculture nutrition scientist with over 30 years of experience (academic, industry) in aquaculture, animal nutrition, feed ingredient evaluation, feed formulation and development of mathematical models for aquaculture production, nutrition and environmental management.

Stephen Gunther (Director – Consulting and Applied Sciences) Stephen is an entrepreneur and business owner with almost 20 years working in and consulting for the animal nutrition and aquaculture industries. He has worked as a nutritionist and technical in the Chilean salmon industry, in technical sales and owner/operator roles in the feed additive and premix industry, and as technical director for one of the leading aquafeed manufacturing companies. Stephen has a post-graduate degree in Animal Nutrition and throughout his career has gained experience in: development and optimization of nutritional strategies in production animals, management of premix plants, management of quality control systems, leading scientific investigations at academic and industrial scale, statistical analysis, publications in peer-reviewed journals, direction of multidisciplinary work teams, development of technical procedures, negotiation with suppliers and administration of budgets.

Dr. Flavia M. Damasceno (Feed Formulation and R&D Specialist) Flavia is an Animal Nutritionist with 14 years of experience in aquaculture nutrition, feed formulation, aquaculture management, data analysis and mathematical modeling, acquired as a graduate student and aquaculture nutritionist at Wittaya Aqua. Her experience also includes economical valuation of feed ingredients, nutritive value and limitations of common and novel animal feed ingredients, and determination of nutrient requirements of different species. As Feed Formulation and R&D Specialist at Wittaya Aqua, Flavia is proficient in formulating diets for commercially important aquaculture species, whether cold water, warm water, carnivorous or omnivorous, coordinating and leading projects, and contributing to the provision of services to customers, notably related to ingredient quality.