Showing 174 search results for:
feed
FOR EU: Norwegian salmon farmer looks to UK ‘regenerative’ wheat in CO2 reduction drive
Norwegian salmon farmer Eide Fjordbruk is set to use wheat grown in the UK using "regenerative" farming to reduce further its CO2 footprint, which the company said is already the lowest of any seafood in the world.Eide Fjordbruk is using the regenerative wheat gluten grown in the north of the UK in its feed for the first time in 2022, said Sondre Eide, its CEO. Eide Fjordbruk plans to get its CO2 emissions even lower and is offsetting with some volumes to market its salmon as carbon neutral, he told Undercurrent, in a video interview.The use of regenerative wheat is part of the company's plan to cut CO2 emissions from around 2.56/per kg – compared to 4.04 per kg in 2018."We are reducing our climate impact from the feed by around 7% with the new ingredients. Switching from normal wheat produced in Europe to regenerated, cultivated wheat from the north of the UK," said Eide.He said that transport from the UK to Norway could be done with a very low CO2 footprint.Food giants such as Nestle, Mars and PepsiCo have committed to regenerative farming in the past year.According to a report on the approach from Farmers Weekly, soil health is "at its heart" of regenerative farming."The aim is to improve or restore soils that have been degraded by rebuilding soil organic matter and increasing soil biology. Soils that are structurally sound and rich with organic matter and micro-organisms are better able to retain water and store carbon," according to the publication. "The theory is that healthier soils lead to healthier plants and, hopefully, healthier profits, while helping to remove carbon from the atmosphere."Aquaculture, agriculture need to work together moreAs regenerative wheat has not been used before in aqua-feed, it's an example of how there are a lot of benefits from different protein sectors co-ordinating more."I think aquaculture and agriculture need to work more hand in hand," said Eide. "It's interesting how research is being done [that shows] you can give seaweed to cows and reduce methane, then there's also learn something [for aquaculture] to learn from agriculture by finding new ingredients back into aquaculture," said Eide. "So, we need to work together as an industry, as food producers."He said that the issues over the food sector's need to produce more yet reduce CO2 emissions are ubiquitous, not only to salmon."It's a global problem, but one-third of the footprint is from the food industry. Then, we need to produce 50% more food to feed the generation in 2050. So, we need 50% more food, and we are already one-third of the CO2 problem today," said Eide. "We need to find those crossovers and work more together as a food industry because there are a lot of synergies. And you will have bigger R&D budgets. You'll find better solutions because we need to win together. We cannot win on our own."Eide Fjordbruk, which produces around 16,000 metric tons annually and aspires to hit 20,000t, is a mid-sized salmon farmer. However, the company punches above its weight on development spending and has its own R&D company, Watermoon.In 2022, Eide said the company would spend around NOK 100 million ($10m) on R&D, having put NOK 86m in during 2021."We created our platform, Watermoon, to deal with the challenges with aquaculture and turn them into positive gains. And to produce a higher quality product," said Eide. "We do this because we want to get more sustainable food. To exist in the future, we need to innovate rapidly; otherwise, we will die as a company. That's the nature of any business, cannibalize or be cannibalized."Feed, biology the focusHe said that feed accounts for 92% of the CO2 footprint of salmon farming. However, any adjustment to reducing the CO2 footprint of feed needs to take into account the biology. "If a fish dies, you have fed that fish, and it has not turned into food, then you see why the biology and the feed are linked together," he said."So, you need to reduce the CO2 footprint of the feed, but still, you need to have good biology. Those are the biggest drivers for getting down the CO2 footprint before transportation," said Eide. "Of course, you have the footprint of the electricity and the boats, but the big drivers are the feed ingredients and biology."In terms of the most promising new feed ingredients, mycelium, a high-protein, high-fiber material that is the root structure of fungi, is the most promising, according to work Eide Fjordbruk is doing in its R&D company, he said."We see there's a lot of interesting new components coming up. We have mycelium, algae oil, blue mussels, so many things, but to get it into a commercial scale is something different," he said.The biggest challenge is finding locally produced sustainable feed ingredients that the fish like to eat and which can "scale" in production, he said.Mycelium is "very interesting because of the growth rate", he said. "It's fairly easy to grow and can be done on a big scale."Blue mussels could also be interesting, but the issue of getting rid of the shell makes production more expensive. "Otherwise, you get a lot of calcium in the feed, but the meat is excellent quality."And here we mention Norway Royal Salmon, though not sure why Mowi is not available...Then, he said that algae oil has essentially become "mainstream", with prices rising close to the level of fish oil. "I wouldn't consider that [algae oil] as up and coming because it's already established."
Watch: How important are Russia, Ukrainian markets for Ecuadorian shrimp?
Regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Gabriel Luna, owner of GLuna shrimp, addressed the importance of these markets for Ecuador's shrimp sector
Portuguese, Irish firms merge to sell tailored whitefish hatchery feeds
Portuguese feedmaker Sparos has merged with Irish distributor PTAqua in order to sell feeds tailored for seabass, seabream, cod, amberjacks, and rock gilthead
US foodtech firm, Nordic soy meal producer team to target European aquaculture
The two companies' plan is to deliver non-GMO soy ingredients to the European aquaculture sector
Daily recap, April 7: UK, Germany worst hit if Russian whitefish sanctioned; BioMar inks deal for acoustic shrimp feed tech
Undercurrent News' editorial director, Tom Seaman, rounds up the biggest seafood news stories from Thursday, April 7
BioMar aims to accelerate shrimp sustainability with deal for acoustic feed tech
Following the 'successful entrance into the shrimp feed market', the board of BioMar has approved the acquisition of AQ1 Systems
Aqua-Spark’s latest investment goes to algal astaxanthin firm
The sustainable aquaculture fund's latest investment is in Hawaii-based Kuehnle AgroSystems, which produces natural coloring for the sector from microalgae
Scottish salmon sector calls for more effort to cut costs of Brexit paperwork
Salmon Scotland warned that member companies have faced an extra £3 million in export costs each year since the UK left the EU
Hatch launches €50m investment plan for ‘regenerative’ aquaculture
The group boasts venture partners including Kingfish Zeeland chair Hans den Biemen and Delta Blue CEO Jeff Fort, plus advisors like Einar Wathne, Darian McBain, and Magdalena Wallhoff Lamprecht
Benelux PE takes majority stake in hatchery aquafeed firm
Torqx Capital Partners has entered into a partnership with the former owners to acquire Ocean Nutrition