The distribution of fish feed makes up an important part of the product. Distribution along the Norwegian coast is largely by ship. Shipowner NSK Shipping AS is one of BioMar’s key collaborators in this field. In 2009, BioMar worked with ship designers NSK Design AS on the development of a more environmentally friendly vessel for transporting aquafeeds.
The aim throughout has been to reduce the environmental impact associated with fish feed distribution. The fruits of this work will now soon be harvested with the completion at the Tersan shipyard in Istanbul of the MS Høydal, the world's first LNG-powered coaster. The plan is that the vessel should be ready to load her first cargo of feed from BioMar’s factories in Norway on May 1, 2012.
The MS Høydal will have a cargo capacity of 2200 tonnes of feed, making this the world's largest operational fish feed carrier. Natural gas (LNG) propulsion will make the vessel environmentally friendly and reduce emissions of NOx (nitrogen oxides) by over 90 %.
The project has received support from the NOx Fund. This fund is the product of an agreement between Norwegian business and industry and the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment aimed at reducing Norway’s emissions of NOx gases.
The collaboration between BioMar, Nordnorsk Shipping, Tersan and the NOx Fund provides an outstanding example of how companies, organisations and public authorities can work together to solve environmental challenges and represents an important step in the direction of making the fish farming industry even more sustainable in the future.
The Norwegian fish farming industry is growing and in 2011 output reached approximately one million tonnes of fish, largely salmon and trout. BioMar supplies this industry with feed and in 2011 the company had a market share of 25% of the overall fish feed market of 1.5 million tonnes. BioMar's goal is to be in the vanguard of sustainable development within Norwegian aquaculture and to this end the company has focused increasing attention on this issue in recent years. In 2011, BioMar Norge became the first feed producer to be certified by Det Norske Veritas under the new “ProSustain“ sustainability certification scheme.
