Skretting has allocated $2 million to enable the development of alternative aquaculture feed ingredients in 2020. This voluntary pledge was made at the 6th Our Ocean Conference (OCC) that was held in Oslo from October 23 -24.
Through its mission of ‘Feeding the Future’, Skretting is focused on increasing the flexibility of the macro- and micro-ingredient inclusion in its aquaculture feeds. A key aspect of this ambition is development of the circular bioeconomy through the utilization of proteins generated from the use of waste streams and by- and co-products. This progress has already seen the group establish working relationships with and provide support to a number of startup innovators.
“For aquaculture to meet its full potential, the sector will need access to sufficient volumes of these novel ingredients. At the same time, Skretting recognizes that these technologies are only able to reach scale through collaborative efforts,” said Trygve B. Lea, sustainability manager at Skretting. “This Our Ocean commitment is focused on overcoming this significant barrier and providing a fast-track to market for these innovations. The hope is for the first few novel raw material sources to achieve scale-up in 2020.”
This is not the first OOC commitment to be made by Skretting. In 2017, a Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) in Northern Humboldt’s current system was launched in partnership with the Peruvian National Fisheries Society, Cargill Aqua Nutrition and the Centre for Development and Sustainable Fisheries (CeDePesca). This FIP is aimed at strengthening the research, management and sustainability in applying the ecosystem approach to the Peruvian anchovy (Engraulis ringens) stock, which is one of the most important single species fisheries worldwide.
Through Skretting’s support of the Our Ocean 2019 program, Erlend Sødal, Skretting global operations director, joined a panel of experts to focus on the topic of foods and livelihoods from the ocean. Specifically, this group looked at how to ensure access to sufficient, safe and nutritious foods from the ocean that meet dietary needs and food preferences for a growing population, as well as how to build food value chains from healthy oceans to healthy people.
Our Ocean 2019 has been organized by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the vision to learn, share and act for a clean, healthy and productive ocean and was hosted by Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide. The conference was attended by approximately 500 delegates from around the world, including heads of state, financial institutions, young leaders, civil society organizations and representatives from the scientific community. OOC’s mission is to build partnerships between government, industry, science and civil society, put knowledge, technology and finance into action to meet the challenges facing the ocean, and enable production and sustainable use to go hand in hand so that the ocean can continue to provide for the needs of future generations.
