ALLER AQUA NORWAY SECURES SUPPORT FOR SALMON FEED RESEARCH PROJECT

Aller Aqua Norway secures support for salmon feed research project. Aller Aqua Norway AS has received 10 million NOK as one of the three projects in an award from the Research Council of Norway for developing fish feed based on new raw materials. The research will be done in collaboration with NMBU in Ås.

This funding support will be used to research grass protein as admixture in salmon feed. Aller Aqua Norway AS is based in Bergen and will, in the project, be testing the incorporation of protein flour from meadow plants into salmon feed. In addition, Aller Aqua Norway AS must investigate nutritional suitability for salmon and ruminants.

This 3-year project has the potential to move the knowledge front within new, sustainable raw material sources for feed that are easy to grow in Norway. Salmon feed based on the addition of green protein extracted from Norwegian meadow plants must be considered a radical innovation both in a national and international context.

In this project, Aller Aqua Norway AS will seek to show that such mixing provides at least as good performance, fish welfare and product quality as soy addition from South America, which is one of the main ingredients in today’s salmon feed. The production of meadow protein by biorefining has a significant potential to contribute to increased local and regional value creation, increased self-sufficiency, and a more sustainable development of the farming industry.

Thus, the new feed concept could mean that tomorrow’s farming production will be an essential contribution to the green shift. This project will first and foremost aim to demonstrate that such feed is beneficial to salmon, something that has not been tested at this intensive research level before.

The company want to show that such a measure is more environmentally friendly than the current import of soya flour, but it is also realistic to produce such valuable meadow crops without affecting agriculture’s needs.

Given the substantial use of imported soy in agriculture, advancement in grass protein research can positively impact livestock production. Grass protein can be extracted from various sources, such as grass and clover.

“Population growth, increased pressure on land and resources, and more uncertain supply lines can put food security under pressure. Therefore, the government has set a goal that all feed for farmed fish and livestock must come from sustainable sources and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the food systems. If we are to succeed in this, we need research and development from such projects”, says Agriculture and Food Minister Geir Pollestad to the Research Council of Norway.

Photo credit: Aller Aqua

Source