For centuries, collagen didn't come from cows. It came from fish. Long before the nutraceutical industry existed, coastal communities boiled fish skins and bones to produce gelatin-like broths. In Japan, traditional fish glue made from swim bladders was used in woodworking and art restoration. In Europe, sturgeon swim bladders were processed into isinglass, used to clarify beer and wine.
No one called it collagen extraction. But that's exactly what it was.
Why fish, and why now
Industrial fish collagen production gained momentum in the late 20th century — not because of sustainability, but because of disease. When BSE, known as mad cow disease, shook the bovine gelatin industry in the 1990s, food and pharmaceutical companies began looking for alternatives. Fish became the logical answer: fewer religious restrictions, no BSE risk, different functional properties.
Suddenly, fish skins were no longer waste. They were raw material.
The opportunity that remains
Today, global fish processing generates millions of tons of by-product annually — skins, bones, heads. In many facilities, these streams are still undervalued. Yet chemically, they are rich in Type I collagen.
The irony? The industry has spent decades optimising fillet yield. Very few have optimised collagen yield. At Farmera, we're producing fish collagen from whole fish streams, scales included. Collagen was never the by-product — it was just waiting for the right lens.
