BioMar Australia has commissioned a new dedicated algal oil facility at its Wesley Vale plant in Tasmania in a bid to reduce the amount of fish oil in its salmon feed.
Corbion and BioMar are working jointly on the development of AlgaPrime DHA as a fish oil replacement product, with a local salmon producer Huon Aquaculture have started using the product in its feed in August last year.
“The addition of algal oil has not impacted the nutritional composition of Huan salmon, nor affected fish health,” Philip Wiese, Huon Aquaculture’s CEO, said, discussing the trial of the replacement oil.
Huon confirmed that, as well as the aquaculture company, other salmon farmers have been working to cut back on the amount of combined fish oil and fishmeal. AlgaPrime DHA will be used to further reduce fish oil, as companies take steps to improve their sustainability.
BioMar Australia is hoping that the new oil facility will give the wider Tasmanian salmon industry access to feed including the fish oil alternative, alongside the Australian and New Zealand aquaculture sectors.
BioMar Group’s research and development on the algal oil produce began back in 2013, with the company creating it through internal and external projects. The aquaculture company began commercially producing feed with AlgaPrime DHA in 2016. Companies, such as Blue Circle, Whole Foods and Lerøy were among the early adopters of the product.
The Millennial Salmon Product (MSP), launched back in Autumn, is currently evaluating AlgaPrime DHA, with the view to advancing the development of sustainable feed ingredients for farmed salmon diets. MSP, which is set to last for four years is funded by the Research Council of Norway and is involving academia and industry.
