Fish by-products constitute between 30–70 percent of fish after being processed into fillets and are usually referred to as “waste”, while the terminology “rest raw materials” would have been more convenient.  In Barbados, approximately 5 tonnes of these fish parts are generated daily[1], the largest share of which finds its way in the landfills. The direct impact is the environmental burden of the waste, since the rotting parts in landfills produce abundant quantities of methane, a gas with above 20 times more global warming potential than CO2, thus contributing to climate change and occupying useful space in the land scarcity context of SIDS. Unlike in some parts of the world, this waste is a missed opportunity of transforming the rest raw materials into valuable products such as fish wieners, sausage, minced meat, etc. and silage-derived products (feed, fertilizer), in the context of the escalation of world grain prices and feed costs, which further inflates the food import bill and adds pressure on farmers and consumers alike.

FAO in partnership with national and regional institutions optimized the recovery process of these rest raw materials, and established the safety, comparative growth performance of fish silage-derived feed with imported feed, and their cost efficiency. The awareness raised led to the establishment of a national fish silage (FLW) platform, the integration of the fish waste utilization concept in the 2022-2030 Fisheries Policy of Barbados, capacity building of women fish processors, and investment for scaling up. The pipeline support to the establishment of a national fish silage reference training centre, and incubator unit for young farmers would further widen the potential of this innovative approach for expansion. It holds promise for other countries in the Caribbean region, given that livestock feed importation is common to all CARICOM countries. Creating new revenue streams, coupled with the ecological and social benefits of fish waste recovery, instead of dumping the fish parts in the landfills or nearshore, contributes to the realization of the commitment of CARICOM to reduce the region’s large and unsustainable extra-regional food import bill by 25% by 2025 and is well aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

KEYWORDS: circular economy, fish waste, feed, Barbados

[1] https://www.fao.org/3/cb0820en/CB0820EN.pdf