Cargill\'s vision of the future: Crop economics will shake up the rapidly expanding market for omega-3 fatty acids as a new generation of hybrid canola plants will undercut every other alternative ingredient to fish oil.

The world’s biggest food trading company has deployed a research team to work with farmers in Montana state on sowing a genetically-modified canola plant that yields both docosahexaenoic (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic (EPA) fatty acids.

Crop-based omega-3 oil and heterotrophic algae production plants that can produce a DHA and EPA rich material will supplement fish oil that is becoming increasingly scarce, according to Rabobank. The aquaculture industry requires these new sources of omega-3 fatty acids and protein to continue to grow, Einar Wathne, group leader for Cargill Aqua Nutrition told Undercurrent News.

“Of all the fish oil alternatives coming to market today, plant based sources are likely the most economical,” Wathne said, whose views are featured in Undercurrent\'s new report, Feed Innovation: The Multi-Billion Dollar Effort To Drive Aquaculture Growth. 

Alternative fish oil prices could be profitable at a cost of $3,000/t, according to Sunil Kadri, an aquaculture technology veteran who is participating in the F3 Fish Oil Challenge to promote new alternative sources. Fish oil may oscillate between $2,200/t and $4,000/t in the future, he said.  

Source: Undercurrent News // Original Article