Sustainable cultivation of polychaetes as feed in aquaculture

Increasing access to sustainable raw materials for feed is the bottleneck that must be solved, if we are to achieve the ambitious goals set by the Norwegian government (Hurdal platform, 2021 and Mission in Sustainable feed, 2022) and meet the demand for sustainable feed ingredients from the aquaculture industry (NCE Seafood innovation). Norway produces 2 million tons of fish feed every year, and an important ingredient is soy from Brazil. Today, only 8% of fish feed comes from Norwegian sources, such as fishmeal and fish oil. Several reports clearly state the enormous need for new feed resources, and the demand is estimated to be 3 million tons in 2030, so more new raw materials need to be considered and scaled up. One of the solutions will be the cultivation of polychaetes. The nutritional value of polychaetes has proven outstanding; rich in marine proteins with a high content of essential amino acids, and omega-3 fatty acids (docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). The cultivation of polychaetes has been tested in several projects at SINTEF over the past ten years, and both the fish feed industry and the aquaculture industry are interested in biomass. The combination of new technology and intensive production methods will provide more predictable and stable production, and will make it possible to scale up production. In this qualification project, the objectives were: • To establish dialogue with potential customers to fully understand their needs, • Conduct a market survey and prepare a market report. • Compilation of available and new technology for the production of polychaetes. • Overview of IP and preparation of IPR management strategy. The long-term goal will be to establish a polychaete factory where residual streams from other industries can be used as feed for polychaetes. The market report shows that polychaete are a valuable resource both to the global shrimp industry and as bait.

Markedsrapporten viser at produktet (børstemark) er attraktivt som fôringrediens. Intervju med globale fôrprodusenter beskriver at børstemark som fôr er svært attraktivt, spesielt for den globale rekeindustrien. Diskusjon med slutt-brukere viser at det er behov for denne typen biomasse Teknologioversiken (road map) har gitt oss et klarere bilde av det som skal til for å bygge et produksjonsanlegg