As a result of participating in the FEED-X program, Unibio partnered with Skretting through a Letter of Intent to begin testing Uniprotein® as a feed ingredient for fish and shrimp feed. The agreement shows Skretting’s willingness to purchase thousands of tons of Uniprotein® if the testing goes according to expectations.
Unibio and its partners would need to invest millions of dollars to increase the production capacity needed to realize the ambitions of the potential collaboration, and the potential revenue generation will be counted in hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to come.
Uniprotein® is produced based on the fermentation of a microbial culture using methane. It is an organic product and can be easily produced on a large scale. The ambition is to utilize methane that would otherwise be wasted or used in less efficient processes. Uniprotein® is high in quality and it can easily replace high-value proteins such as super-prime fishmeal and highly concentrated soy products.
Robert van den Breemer, procurement director at Skretting, said that “the available volumes, start-up stage product pricing and low value-chain commitment of alternative ingredients today remain a limitation towards meeting the needs of the aquaculture industry in the future. We believe that our commitment to Unibio brings us another step closer towards ensuring the sustainable future of the aquaculture industry and fulfilling Skretting’s mission of ‘Feeding the Future’.”
Henrik Busch-Larsen, Unibio CEO, said that “in a future where we have to significantly reduce the global environmental footprint of feed production, we believe that Unibio delivers a game-changing technology. Imagine applying the global abundance of methane to produce an almost unlimited supply of protein. No need to add additional stress to the world’s oceans or agricultural systems. No need to clear more rainforest. This is the opportunity presented by the Unibio technology, which, by the way, is one of the few new protein technologies that have made it to full scale. The collaboration with Skretting holds big potential for Unibio in terms of taking us to the next level of becoming a significant worldwide supplier of low-footprint and environmentally friendly protein.”
Matchmaking through FEED-X
Unibio and Skretting met through the FEED-X program, which aims to shift 10% of the global feed industry - approximately 100 million tons - to significantly reduce feed-related environmental impacts, by adopting alternative feed ingredients and feed-related technologies into value chains for aquaculture. The FEED-X program is supported by Skretting, IKEA, WWF and other mission-aligned partners.
The expectations for Unibio’s contribution to the FEED-X program are high. With Uniprotein®, Unibio will enable the overcoming of some of the larger challenges that FEED-X has been designed for: tackle the sustainability challenges of producing feed for animals and fish at industry and global level and at a fast pace. In the long term, FEED-X wants to be able to provide the world’s growing population with food produced in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
