Cyanotech halts production of NatuRose for feed market
Hawaii-based mycroalgae producer, Cyanotech Corporation today announced that it will discontinue marketing of its NatuRose product for the animal feed market in order to focus production and marketing of natural astaxanthin exclusively on the higher value human market.
“Although many believe that natural astaxanthin provides far more benefits for aquaculture than synthetic astaxanthin made from petroleum, that product now dominates the market for fish coloring and our higher quality, higher priced natural product cannot compete effectively,” said Gerald R. Cysewski, , Cyanotech’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
“Our strategy has evolved to exclusively target the human astaxanthin market where we have a cost advantage. Cyanotech has the largest production capacity of natural astaxanthin in the industry and largest sales of all producers selling astaxanthin into the human nutrition market,” Dr. Cysewski concluded. “We see this important decision as our BioAstin customers' insurance that we will continue to be the most reliable supplier in the industry as natural astaxanthin becomes a more widely used human nutraceutical supplement.”
Cyanotech also announced it has discontinued production and marketing of phycobiliproteins (fluorescent pigments made from microalgae and used in medical diagnostic testing and research), a highly specialized product that had provided a small contribution to revenue in recent years.
