Firm’s breakthrough in organic salmon farming

THE commercial production by a Galway company of a new feed ingredient derived from seaweed will enable the production of the world’s first organically raised farmed salmon, it was announced yesterday.

OceanFeed, which replaces the synthetic additives currently used in commercial salmon feed, is being hailed as a major breakthrough in terms of product quality and environmental benefit for the €6 billion farmed salmon industry.

The market in Europe for additives in the salmon feed business is worth €900 million.

Ocean Harvest Technology, a fledgling Galway-based company which has developed the product, is delighted with the interest from the market.

The first year’s production has been optioned by EWOS UK, one of the world’s leading salmon feed producers.

Ocean Harvest chief executive and co-founder Patrick Martin, an Irish-born seafood expert with over 25 years experience in world aquaculture, said the industry’s response has been outstanding.

“As an industry, salmon farming has taken significant criticism in terms of environmental impact.

“The long term importance of aquaculture in helping to feed the world has always meant that sustainable solutions would need to be found.

“The belief is that OceanFeed will be a key ingredient in helping to make the industry more environmentally, as well as financially, sustainable,” he said.

Mr Martin said they are creating a company in the West of Ireland that will have the capacity to supply the world’s leading centres of salmon farming in Scotland, Norway and Chile.

“It is a great opportunity to bring a global business to a local community in Galway,” he said.

Company co-founder Dr Stefan Kraan, a Netherlands born marine biologist and former head of the Irish Seaweed Centre at NUI Galway, said the complex blend of seaweeds that are in OceanFeed allows salmon to be raised in a wholly natural way.

“We have to look at our oceans in order to be able to feed the world in the future.

“OceanFeed fits right into that strategy and enables the continued development of a better, wholly sustainable food source,” he said.