Investigative journalism: Fishmeal for European aquaculture is emptying African fish markets

The European farmed fish market proclaims its ambitions for sustainability, but behind the shiny fillets of perch and salmon lies a reality in which a few purchasing decisions thousands of kilometres away can dry up West African fish markets and bankrupt local markets that feed entire communities. An international investigative journalism investigation by the website Follow The Money together with the British daily The Guardian and the Dutch daily DeSmog shows how sardines and other small fish, once sold directly on Senegalese beaches for human consumption, are being bought up as a priority by fishmeal factories, processed into feed for European and Turkish aquaculture farms, then reimported as "responsibly farmed” fish onto the shelves of major chains in the European Union and the UK.

The sources cited claim that crates of fish leaving Dakar for factories on the Aegean coast return to Europe as aquaculture perch, while local markets are left with leftovers or nothing, and local processors and small traders lose both their goods and their bargaining power. The mechanism is simple and ruthless: the European aquaculture industry prefers carnivorous species with high commercial value, but to feed these fish species, millions of tons of small wild fish are needed, the same ones that families in Senegal, Mauritania or Gambia relied on for cheap protein.

The investigation shows that in December, when the sardine season begins, trucks from European factories appear in large numbers on African beaches and bid over the possibilities of the local market, diverting entire food flows from people's plates to feed for farmed fish. DeSmog and Follow the Money have documented how fishmeal produced in Senegal ends up in Turkish fish farms that supply Dutch supermarkets; in the UK, a joint Guardian-DeSmog investigation linked the sea bass on the shelf to fishmeal made from West African fish, exposing an opaque supply chain where labels like "responsible” and "sustainable” fail to reflect the real social and nutritional costs.

The sources say the effect on local markets is visible in the gaps left on stalls and in wallets: when European factories pay more at the beach gate, traditional traders lose access to quality fish, and prices rise for low-income consumers.

An FAO assessment of small pelagics in West Africa highlights their critical role in regional food security, while academic research at the "food-feed nexus” shows how diverting these catches from people's plates to aquaculture feed undermines essential protein and micronutrient intake. Similarly, fishers' organizations and independent analysts estimate that the small fish currently processed into meal and oil could feed tens of millions of people if they remained in the human food chain, turning every shipment of fishmeal into a transfer of food from vulnerable communities to farms serving wealthy markets.

Even reports commissioned or supported by the European aquaculture industry admit to the adverse effects: due diligence assessments show the displacement of small-scale fishers and the erosion of food security in Mauritania and Senegal, while investigative journalism over the past year has documented how fishmeal exports have exploded, pushing processors into unemployment and fueling the migration of young people. In the mirror, voices in European retail invoke certifications and promises of a "transition to more sustainable feed by 2030”, but these commitments only make sense if they reduce the total demand for fishmeal from edible fish and if supply chain transparency becomes real, not just a label on the packaging.

The argument that fishmeal exports bring jobs and foreign exchange cannot be dismissed, but the balance becomes sinister when you put the income of a few factories and the right of millions of people to affordable food on the same scale. FAO and regional working groups have been reporting on the pressure on small pelagic stocks for years, and field reports from 2025 describe an equation in which European industrial fleets, trade rules and the pursuit of "healthy fish” in the global North combine to extract value from African waters, leaving local markets without goods and consumers without nutritious and affordable alternatives. In the absence of firm rules to cap the use of edible fishmeal and prioritize human consumption, European aquaculture continues to function as a vacuum cleaner for cheap food from the global South, shifting costs to the most fragile world food markets.

The sources cited argue that if Europe really wants "sustainable” fish, it is not enough to move certifications from one shelf to another, but must change demand, accelerate the production of feed substitutes that do not compete with people's plates, and explicitly support local fish markets in the supplying countries, so that small fish can return to their natural role as a staple food. Until then, every portion of farmed perch that passes through the cash registers in the European Union risks representing a missing meal in Saint-Louis, Joal or Nouadhibou, while local markets slowly die out under the pressure of a "sustainability” that feeds the European fish farm, not people. And we are talking about aquaculture, a sector of activity that has an annual production worth 265 billion dollars according to the sources cited.