The F3 - Future of Fish Feed extended the new registration deadline for The F3 Challenge – Carnivore Edition to September 15, 2021. The sales competition, designed to accelerate the development and adoption of fishmeal and fish oil replacements in aquaculture feed, extended the previously announced deadline due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are excited to resume the Challenge,” said Kevin Fitzsimmons, a professor at the University of Arizona and F3 chair. “We appreciate the patience of our current contestants who signed up early to ensure those who needed extra time to announce their participation due to the global pandemic could do so.”
Japanese aquaculture company Dainichi Corporation recently joined the competition for red sea bream. Seven competitors are currently registered for the contest, and many are seeking partners. The feed submission and partnership deadline is November 30, 2021. The contestants include:
- BGreen Technologies, a young startup based in India, is competing in the “other carnivorous species” category with its Asian seabass feed.
- Founded in 2012, U.S.-based Chapul Farms, farms and formulates functional proteins from black soldier flies for food and feed ingredients by raising its soldier fly larvae on agricultural byproducts, primarily for salmonid feed. Chapul Farms is seeking sales partners for the challenge.
- Japan-based Dainichi Corporation is a vertically integrated aquaculture manufacturer producing feed primarily for yellowtail (Hamachi) and sea bream (Madai) and farming Bluefin Tuna (Kuro maguro) and Masu Salmon (Satsuki Masu).
- Empagran, an aquaculture company with 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) of shrimp ponds in Ecuador, a packing plant, hatchery, and feed mill, is selling fish-free feed for white shrimp (Litopenaues vannamei) in partnership with Veramaris. Empagran’s feed contains soybean meal and Veramaris’ algal oil rich in both EPA and DHA.
- Jiangsu Fuhai Biotech Co., Ltd. founded in Haian, Jiangsu, China in 2015, uses fermented dehulled full fat soybean as a raw material for use in feed for salmonid, shrimp and other carnivorous species. Jiangsu Fuhai Biotech is seeking product development and sales partners for all three award categories.
- UK-based Remediiate grows microalgae at scale and is seeking product development partners to formulate a finished feed to compete for the shrimp category.
- Star Milling Co. is selling rainbow trout feed containing a barley protein concentrate produced by its partner Scoular Company. The patented process Scoular uses to obtain its high-quality, nutrient-dense and highly digestible protein source is an ideal complement to replace fishmeal in aquaculture and pet food.
The F3 Challenge aims to make it unnecessary to use wild fish in feeds so that they can remain in the environment for other species, and aquaculture’s growth becomes unconstrained from wild resource availability, assuring greater food security in the future.
The qualifying feeds for all prize categories must not contain any ingredients consisting of or derived from marine animals, including but not limited to: fish, squid, shrimp, or krill. For official contest rules, visit f3challenge.org.
