LAKSESYSTEMER AND AGRILIGHT ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Laksesystemer and Agrilight announce strategic partnership on LED luminaires developed specifically for land based aquaculture. Following more than 3 years of preparations, the companies have now formalised the cooperation and are ready for the next phase with a commercially available solution. The objective is to reduce the stress level of the fish, improve feed utilisation and to reduce the energy consumption.
“When we learned to know Agrilight, we discovered a new world of knowledge on the use of light for efficient production of food,” says Ole Gabriel Kverneland, general manager in Laksesystemer AS. “It is truly inspiring to work with a knowledgeable and dedicated partner as Agrilight and we complement each other so well that we have now decided to formalise the partnership. Norway is one of the front runners when it comes to production of fish, but when it comes to the use of lights I am certain that we have a lot to learn from agriculture and from the greenhouse industry.
“For natural reasons, most of the light technology on the market is developed for humans. Light for humans are not optimised for biological production and the consequence is that the fish is unnecessarily stressed and that the energy consumption is higher than it needs to be. Few things are as stressful for a fish as poor light conditions in form of flickering, uneven light spread or wrong intensity. All food producers know that the key to end product quality is to provide a rearing environment where the animals can thrive. We are therefore very happy to see that long term testing indicates that we are able to do exactly what we were aiming for; to reduce the stress level of the fish. Feedback from customers stating that ‘The tanks were easier to manage with reduced stress response on the fish and with better light conditions in the entire tank’ makes us confident we are on the right path and that our technology can actually contribute to lowering stress. Even though the light is developed for salmon, the initial results have been so promising that we are already involved in testing for species such as Tilapia as well as snails.”
General manager Agrilight, Han Hondebrink and Niels Hiemstra, Export Manager say:
“we will work closely together with Laksesystemer AS, together with our R&D department, to fully support them towards high end lighting solutions for their current and future markets”.
Agrilight is specialised on the development and production of light for livestock and has cooperated with Laksesystemers mother company Fjøssystemer 20 years. Experience from light control for cows, poultry, goats, insects and greenhouse (with their sister company Hortilux) are now supporting the development of new solutions with specific properties for fish. For Agrilight, this partnership is the next step in lights for livestock and a contribution to more sustainable production of animal proteins. The lights are manufactured in Holland.