ABO member TerraVia (Solazyme, Inc.) last week announced it (and corporate partner, Bunge) had reached a definitive commercial supply agreement with one of the world’s largest aquaculture feed suppliers to provide algae-derived omega-3 oils for incorporation into feed for farmed salmon.
While the announcement was met with little fanfare, its implications for both the algae and aquaculture industries are profound.
For the algae industry, the agreement demonstrates that feed suppliers are embracing algae as a feed ingredient, unlocking a multi-billion dollar market. For the aquaculture industry, it likely marks the beginning of a broader partnership with the algae industry to provide a new, sustainable source of both oils and proteins for farmed fish.
Don’t be surprised if there are more announcements to come this year in the algae animal nutrition world. Algae may well be the ‘it’ animal feed ingredient of 2016.