Skretting may have found a solution to the world shortage of omega 3-rich fish oil by agreeing on industrial production of algae oil.
The scarcity of fish oil has become a growing problem for fish feed producers, who have been seeking alternative solutions. That also applies to Skretting, which has its headquarters in Stavanger, Norway.
“Moving towards industrialization”
“We have started using algae already, but still on a very small scale. It is expected to reach industrial level by the end of 2019,” David Knudsen, responsible for product development and raw material optimization in Skretting, told SalmonBusiness.
Their supplier has now set up a small plant where they can produce the algae for Skretting.
“It’s not as big as fish oil, but it’s moving in that direction,” said Knudsen.
Got several offers
Communications Manager at Skretting Norway, Leif Kjetil Skjæveland, told SalmonBusiness that they have been offered a variety of solutions as an alternative to fish oil.
“There’s a limited amount of fish oil out there. We have had a few companies knocking at our door claiming that they have one or more smart solutions they can offer. And when I ask them how much they can deliver, they answer 10, or 100, tons. We need 50-100,000 tons. It’s one thing to develop a raw material; getting it to an industrial scale is something different,” said Skjæveland.
Now they have entered an agreement with a company that is about to start industrial production of algae oil. To invest in it, they had to make sure they had a feed producer willing to pay for their product.
Ambitions about growth
“I think that if we want to grow in the future, we have to find alternatives to marine raw materials. This is an important investment,” said Knudsen.
“Fish oil will still be a good and important resource, but we have the ambition to grow. We need to find alternative raw materials if we want to grow,” he added.
Skretting now believes it has solved the volume problem by going straight to the manufacturer to get an agreement on industrial production.
