Peru’s anchovy fishery sits at the center of the global omega-3 supply chain, and driven by coastal El Niño warming, 2026 production is facing serious disruption.
The Peruvian anchovy fishery is a major source of marine omega-3 oils. Recent disruption has highlighted challenges in sourcing long chain omega-3 fatty acids, such as EPA and DHA.
This represents a serious risk to supply reliability, profitability and ongoing operations, contributing to ingredient shortages, increasing costs, reduced margins and disruptions across the supply chain.
As demand for EPA and DHA continues to grow, diversification is becoming less of a marketing opportunity and more of a business necessity. For supplement brands, contract manufacturers and formulators, securing long-term access to omega-3 ingredients will require a more diversified and resilient sourcing strategy than ever before.
NutraIngredients partnered with Aker Biomarine in a recent Spotlight On ‘Omega-3 Diversification: Future-Proofing Your Supply’. In this session, NutraIngredients spoke to Philip Scrase, chief analyst at Kontali; Ellen Schutt, managing director of GOED; Simon Seward, CEO, Human Health Ingredients at Aker BioMarine; Gonzalo Caceres, commercial director at Tasa; and Matts Johansen, CEO at Aker BioMarine.
Global demand and supply dynamics
Philip Scrase, an expert in aquaculture and seafood markets, uncovers the global demand and supply dynamics that shape access to omega-3 ingredients.
“With the El Nino conditions, Peru is seeing the disruptions to fisheries. In the first season its quotas were cut by 36%. A bit more importantly, a high share of juveniles has triggered repeated bans and stops to the fisheries with no reopening in sight at the moment,” says Scrase.
“In reality only 25% of the first quota has been caught and looking at the second season – which has not been announced yet – outlook isn’t good. There will be important cruises to assess biomass over the next months.
“Normally the second season is around the same level as the first season in terms of quotas. But what is really interesting this year is that this is not only a situation impacting Peru and Chile. The North Atlantic is also seeing some structural issues with production in quotas and biomass.
“For instance, blue whiting – which is one of the most important species for fish meal and fish oil in particular salmon feeds – has seen a reduction of more than 50% this year. This is special in the sense that normally when one source is coming down, there is room to compensate from other sources.
“That is not the case this time around – and with inventories also low, this is creating more challenges,” adds Scrase.
How can the industry respond?
To translate how the current market will impact the nutraceutical industry, Ellen Schutt shared expertise from GOED, the global organisation for EPA and DHA Omega-3’s.
“We are very, very focused on what’s going on in the dietary supplement and human nutrition industry,” says Schutt.
“There is a limited amount of fish in the ocean that can supply EPA and DHA and one of GOED’s missions is to increase consumer intake of omega-3s for public health. If we can do that, we understand that there isn’t enough fish oil to be able to supply that demand.
GOED conducted a survey among its brand members about this challenging situation and how they are preparing.
“In 2023 there was already a supply chain shortage in Peru and that was very eye opening for members. We were interested to learn now three years later, what have you learned? What are you doing differently? And how concerned are you about switching sources?” says Schutt.
“We had responses from 13 different countries. Of course, this is anecdotal, but I think it gives a good directional overview of what brands or potential customers are thinking.
“In terms of how concerned brands are, most are ‘very’ or ‘highly’ concerned. There were a few that might be a little less concerned, but it depends if you’re asking, ‘are you concerned for the rest of 2026’ or ‘are you concerned for the long-term stability of the industry’.
“Mitigation measures are in place, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is solved. This is something we want to continue to impress upon our members and the industry – this is not something that’s temporary; it needs to be part of how you think about the future of your business. This is an ongoing operational risk,” adds Schutt.
Alternative omega-3 sources
Responding to these challenges, Aker BioMarine is exploring how krill oil and algae oil can serve as complementary sources within a more diversified and resilient strategy.
“In the fish oil market, aquaculture accounts for around 80% of the total demand. Human nutrition, on the other hand, including dietary supplements, functional foods and pharmaceuticals, represent around 16%” says Simon Seward.
In summary, the supplement industry is competing for a relatively small share of a supply pool which aquaculture also critically depends upon.
At the same time, several powerful demand engines are accelerating simultaneously. “First of all, the global population is ageing, we’re all living longer. The number of people over 65 and above is expected to double by 2050, thereby increasing demand for solutions which support cardiovascular health, cognitive health, joint eye health, all under the healthy ageing banner.
“Secondly, expanding middle classes across China and the wider Asia Pacific region are also increasing awareness, and therefore consumption, of omega-3 products.
“And thirdly, omega-3 remains structurally under penetrated. So, the vast majority of the global population doesn’t consume enough or the recommended levels of EPA and DHA,” adds Seward.
Seward notes that on the supply-side, the best-case assumption is that global fish oil production remains stable at approximately 1.2m metric tons. This means that under these assumptions, demand begins to structurally exceed supply from around 2027.
“The question is no longer whether prices will increase. The bigger question is what does a resilient omega-3 supply strategy look like? We believe we are approaching the end of the single source omega-3 era,” says Seward.
To cope with supply pressures, a resilient strategy of qualified alternative omega-3 sources is essential. Aker BioMarine is a global leader in krill and has strong ambitions to build a leading position in algae too.
“Superba Krill Oil is a premium krill oil and a natural multi nutrient ingredient. It provides four important nutrients from one source, omega-3 EPA and DHA, phospholipids, choline and astaxanthin,” says Seward.
These components work together to support whole-body wellness, offering high bioavailability as the omega-3s are bound to phospholipids rather than triglycerides.
“Superba Krill Oil is supported by more than 60 human clinical trials and more than 135 scientific studies with documented benefits across more than nine health areas, which include heart, brain, eye, joint, sports, immune health, as well as healthy aging applications – in addition to a really strong sustainability foundation,” adds Seward.
“Revervia is our 100% vegan DHA derived from microalgae. It provides between 40 and 60% DHA in natural triglyceride form, without any chemical or molecular restructuring”.
Join On Demand now
The future of omega-3 is not about replacing one source with another, it’s about creating a more diversified, flexible and resilient supply base. The broadcast featured a Q&A with its speakers to discuss how the industry can respond to current challenges, as well as showcasing the role that krill and algae oil can play in more diversified supply chains.
It is clear that diversification is becoming increasingly important to ensure longer term access to omega-3.
