A programme that’ll introduce olive’s healing properties to salmon will begin in January 2019.
The AQUOLIVE project from Madrid-based biotech company, Natac, has been selected by the European Commission to receive funding in the latest round of the H2020 SME Instrument programme call. The two year programme has a budget of €2.5M and will set out to improve aquaculture sustainability and salmon production performance in Europe.
Olives
“Considering the competitiveness of this call, we feel really optimistic about it potential outcomes for our company and for the sector,” said José M Pinilla, Natac’s R&D Project Manager in an email to SalmonBusiness. The EUR programme was highly competitive with only 3 out of every 100 applicant companies successful funded.
The base raw material for AQUOLIVE production comes from olive tree biomass, a key industry in southern Europe, which the company envisage being potentially boosted by the project.
“The product is obtained from olive biomass produced in the olive oil industry, in a circular economy and bio-economical scenario. It’s based in the valorisation of olive industrial biomass,” explained Pinilla.
And it appears the industry are curious about if olive’ well documented anti-oxidant properties will translate to salmon: “We have received up to 10 letters of commitment from different entities (aquaculture companies, aquaculture associations, feed producers) including some of the main salmon feed producers” added Pinilla.
