Fish Oil (Crude Anchovy & Pelagic Fish Oil, Feed and Refining Grades)

Crude fish oil by EPA+DHA, FFA, peroxide and anisidine, in flexitanks and ISO tanks

Fish oil is the oil centrifuged out of the press liquor when pelagic fish and fish trimmings are cooked and pressed for fishmeal, so it comes from the same plants and the same seasons: about 1.2 million MT a year against 5.2 million MT of meal. HS 1504.20 covers fats and oils of fish and their fractions, whether or not refined, other than liver oils and chemically modified oils. Omega-3s make up as much as a third of fish oil, and EPA plus DHA is the number that prices it. Peruvian anchovy (Engraulis ringens) crude oil is sold at EPA+DHA minimums of 25% or 28% for feed, with FFA at 3–4%, and at 30% as crude oil for direct human consumption with unsaponifiable matter ≤ 2.5%; the feed contract runs on a 3% FFA basis with a 1:1 allowance up to 4%, moisture and impurities ≤ 1%, peroxide value ≤ 5 meq/kg, anisidine value ≤ 25, iodine value 160–200 (Hanus), at least 150 ppm antioxidant at loading and no tank bottoms or sludge. Peroxide value measures primary oxidation and anisidine value the secondary products, and TOTOX (2 × peroxide + anisidine) combines them: refined oil for supplements is held to peroxide < 5 meq O2/kg, anisidine < 20 and TOTOX < 26 under the GOED Voluntary Monograph, and Codex CXS 329-2017, the Standard for Fish Oils, sets composition and quality factors for named fish oils. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 1504.20 put Denmark at 108,125 MT (87,152 MT of it to Norway), Norway 102,813 MT, Chile 99,816 MT, Peru 99,662 MT (USD 675 million, led by shipments to Chile, China, Canada, Norway and Denmark), the USA 40,488 MT, Iceland 34,506 MT, Morocco 23,488 MT and Mauritania 5,927 MT; on the import side Norway declared 184,380 MT, the USA 104,415 MT, Chile 82,716 MT, Turkiye 78,542 MT and China 64,621 MT.

The buyers are salmon, trout, shrimp and marine-fish feed mills — aquafeed takes 65–70% of the world's marine ingredients — and refiners supplying omega-3 oils for supplements, food and pet food. Peru's 2026 north-central first anchovy season closed from 21 August with about a quarter of its 1,914,049 MT quota landed. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers crude and refined fish oil from Peruvian, Chilean, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, US, Moroccan and Mauritanian producers and trader positions against an independent laboratory's analysis at loading for EPA and DHA, FFA, moisture and impurities, peroxide and anisidine values and antioxidant, the competent authority's health certificate for the destination and a certificate of origin naming the plant (for Morocco, the plant and catch area). MarinTrust certification of the producing plant requires raw material from non-IUU fisheries managed to the FAO Code of Conduct, and MarinTrust accepts MSC-certified fisheries such as Danish and Norwegian sandeel and Nordic capelin after annual verification; the EU catch certificate under Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 covers Chapter 03 and headings 1604 and 1605, so fish oil does not travel on one. Every lot is fish only, species-declared and certifiable as halal by the destination's accepted certifier, and where the buyer encapsulates the refined oil the capsule is specified from halal-certified sources; the seafood book is fish and shrimp only, with no crab, lobster, oysters, other shellfish or molluscs. Oil moves in 20-ft containers fitted with flexitanks of 12,000–24,000 litres or in ISO tank containers of 21,000–26,000 litres on FOB, CFR and CIF terms, with freight quoted through the lines and forwarders. Prices are per MT by origin, EPA+DHA and FFA basis, and US menhaden oil is quoted in cents per lb FOB, so offers are compared on the same omega-3 minimum and allowance. Send the grade, EPA+DHA floor, FFA and oxidation limits, antioxidant, monthly volume and discharge port and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

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Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.