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FORNY20-FORNY2020

KVAL: Gammaridae - A sustainable fish feed source

Alternative title: Tanglopper: et bærekraftig for til oppdrettsfisk

Awarded: NOK 0.42 mill.

Project Number:

333910

Project Period:

2022 - 2022

Funding received from:

One of the biggest challenges for the future aquaculture industry is to obtain enough raw material for the production of feed and feed ingredients. An alternative is to grow organisms from lower trophic levels and utilize residual products from the industry as feed sources for these organisms. Large amounts of residues from both agriculture and aquaculture represent important tributaries that low-trophic organisms can convert to high-quality proteins and lipids that can be utilized commercially in different segments. Gammaridaes are low-trophic organisms that have been shown to be an interesting source of future marine raw material. In the wild, these crustaceans live in the littorale zone and feed mainly on dead organic material. The chemical composition makes them attractive feed organisms for various fish species and also interesting for commercial utilization. They undergo a tidal cycle and are exposed to large environmental variations every day, which means that they are robust organisms that can be grown in a controlled intensive system. By cultivating this type of organism in a land based system, and using a low-cost feed and automating the cultivation processes, this can lead to the production of high-quality biomass. Based on the chemical composition of these organisms, the raw material from these crustaceans can represent a very important component of a future fish feed. Chemical analysis of Gammaridaes have shown that they have a high content of carotenoids, 50 % of the animals' dry weight are proteins and up to 14 % are lipids. The predominant polyunsaturated fatty acids are DHA, EPA and ARA. The primary goal of this project is to perform a market study and sign letter of intents for feed trials with leading fish feed producers. Secondary objectives are to create an IPR management strategy and in cooperation with one or two pilot customers and prepare a technology roadmap for pilot fish feed trials on gammaridae biomass.

In this project an extensive market survey was carried out by Impello, a leading company in strategy and financial consulting and M&A. Their most important sources of information were based on market interviews with companies from the fish feed market and the Pet Food market and an introduction to other relevant markets. The market survay assured us that there are many potential pilot customers ready to sign an LOI. We decided to postpone the selection of a customer until a later phase. This was done to ensure that we are able to deliver relevant quantities within a reasonable time after signing the LOI. The companies asked us to keep them updated on our work. We established a plan for pilot-scale production of biomass from Gammaridaes. The starting point is to establish a broodstock population of Gammarids, which reproduce and produce offspring. By repeating its normal reproductive cycle, a given number of times, the amount of parent animals will be so large that the number of offspring can be transferred to breeding units and thus produce marine biomass. A theoretical model based on this concept indicates an annual production of up to 100 tonnes. The model is based on conservative assumptions and results from previous tests. After establishing a pilot plant, scaling up over a three-year period will enable us to deliver 30 tonnes of biomass (dry weight). Within a 5-year period, production can be scaled up to 100 tonnes (dry weight). More about this source textSource text required for additional translation information Send feedback Side panels

Funding scheme:

FORNY20-FORNY2020