Facial recognition - for fish
Living in an information society does not mean that we are only people who monitor each other. Now we have taken the technology a step further - and can use the facial recognition to find out how the fish is in the water.
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Earlier this year, Cargill Inc. reported on how they, together with an Irish tech startup, tried to develop a system that could use the cognitive facial recognition of cows to measure how the cows used and eventually use the information to increase milk production. Now they have taken it to the water and work to soon implement similar systems on fish farms.
Cermaq, which operates over 200 fish farms in Norway, Chile and Canada, believes that they can reduce mortality by more than 50 percent. Previously, just diseases have been a problem that the salmon companies have been struggling with, so that Cermaq is now expected to find a partial solution to the problem could increase the salmon companies' margins and profits further. This type of technique - yes, fish eye recognition - could potentially lead to even better results for fish farms.
Aquaculture is to breed organisms in water, usually in the sea or pools. The cultivated can be fish, shellfish, algae or aquatic plants whose purposes are for use as foodstuffs. In more than 50 years, aquaculture has gone from producing and selling only a few million tonnes a year to reach the 100 million-tonne magic limit in 2016.
Source: Food and Agricolture Organization
The fact that the development of salmon prices in the long term can be positively influenced by several factors is not that strange either. The salmon industry benefits, for example, from the fact that climate conscious consumers choose fish for beef and pork because the climate impact per ton is much lower in fish farming than in breeding of beef or pig. Another aspect that matters is that the amount of meat per ton is much higher in fish than in other animals because a larger proportion of the fish is edible. And while globally, much more meat is consumed than fish, it means that there is a huge continued development potential for salmon companies, as people increasingly demand healthy and more environmentally friendly food.
Exposing to this kind of market can feel as strange as it was for the first people who instead of switching gold against goods left over a useless paper trap instead. But do not despair. There are both listed companies and readily available products to invest in if you want access to the market that supplies the world of seafood.
Perhaps no surprise, it is on the Oslo Stock Exchange that we find the largest salmon companies for those who are interested in investing in individual companies. There we find, among other things, Marine Harvest which accounts for about a third of the world's salmon farming, or others in the same sector as Salmar, Greif Seafood, Bakkafrost and Leroy Seafood.
For those who are more careful and prefer to spread the risks in different salmon companies, there is a simple solution. Vontobel allows exposure to Solactive Nordic Seafood and Fishing Performance Index, which includes the following salmon companies:
- Marine Harvest
- SALMAR
- Leroy Seafood Group
- Bakkafrost
- Austevoll Seafood
- Grieg Seafood
- Norway Royal Salmon
- Scottish Salmon Company
Now you can expose yourself to the entire market - if it's a sector you believe in, say - instead of just selecting one or two companies. Whichever route you choose, we can still note that the trend of fish and shellfish consumption is here to stay, and is likely to continue to increase exponentially.
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