“By including microalgae in aquaculture feed diets, we can bypass the wild fish stocks and go straight to the original source of essential omega-3s. This helps to relieve pressure on our oceans while ensuring that the fish are getting the optimal nutrition required,” said Vidar Gundersen, global sustainability director at BioMar Group, in a press release.
© BioMar has included AlgaPrime as an alternative to fish oil in over 1 million tonnes of its feeds for salmonids
The innovation process began back in 2013 with the first microalgae, AlgaPrime in commercial salmon feeds realised during 2016. The first movers were Kvarøy Fiskeoppdrett, with Blue Circle and Whole Foods, and Scottish Sea Farms with Marks & Spencer. Not long after Ventisqueros (in their coho silverside) and Lerøy (in their Atlantic salmon) adopted microalgae in their diets. These higher volumes help it achieve commercial viability and today, the inclusion of microalgae is becoming more common in BioMar salmon feeds.
“To bring something this novel to market required the support from the entire value chain. We found this among several salmon farmers and retailers that were willing to take a chance on microalgae and today’s success is owed to them all. Also, to the numerous people in BioMar production sites that found solutions to some challenging technical issues that we experienced over the years,” said Paddy Campbell, VP of BioMar’s salmon division.
Microalgae is one of several novel ingredients in the BioMar innovation pipeline. With limited planetary resources, the need to decouple aquaculture feed supply chains from directly competing with food for human consumption will increase. BioMar recently announced an ambitious target of 50 percent circular and/or restorative ingredients in their aquaculture feed diets by 2030.
