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Skretting earmarks $2M for feed innovation

Global feed producer Skretting has allocated $2 million for the development of alternative aquaculture feed ingredients in 2020.

The company made the pledge at the 6th Our Ocean Conference held last October in Oslo, Norway, saying it aims to create pathways for innovations to reach sufficient scale so they can deliver long-term value to the aquaculture supply chain.

“The application of sustainable, novel ingredients in aquafeeds – both through replacement and interchange – are recognised as a viable means to achieve increased flexibility and lower the dependence on finite marine ingredients,” Skretting said in a statement.

Through its Mission of ‘Feeding the Future’, Skretting is focused on increasing the flexibility of the macro- and micro-ingredient inclusion in its aquaculture feeds. A key aspect of this ambition is the development of the circular bio-economy through the utilisation of proteins generated from the use of waste streams, and by- and co-products. This progress has already seen the group establish working relationships with and provide support to a number of start-up innovators, the statement said.

“For aquaculture to meet its full potential, the sector will need access to sufficient volumes of these novel ingredients. At the same time, Skretting recognises that these technologies are only able to reach scale through collaborative efforts,” said Trygve Lea, sustainability manager at Skretting. “This Our Ocean commitment is focused on overcoming this significant barrier and providing a fast-track to market for these innovations. The hope is for the first few novel raw material sources to achieve scale-up in 2020.”

Skretting also announced the creation of a new position to support its efforts toward developing novel ingredients for aquaculture. The new position – category manager for novel ingredients – to which Jenna Bowyer has been appointed, will lead procurement activities in the novel sector, including planning supplier engagement and long-term supplier partnerships. A large focus of the role will be to increase future supply of emerging raw materials, such as insect and single-cell proteins. Bowyer will also work with suppliers to accelerate raw material innovation and scale-up, Skretting said in the press announcement.