Partnership establishes European market pathway for novel ingredient-fed shrimp

With the aim of supplying European consumers with larger volumes of sustainable, Latin American shrimp, Netherlands-based shrimp importer Klaas Puul and global aquafeed manufacturer Skretting have embarked on a supply chain collaboration that will not only provide local farmers with a new diet that utilizes novel ingredients, but which also has a major retailer onboard.

Skretting Ecuador, alongside alternative ingredient developers Protix and Veramaris, intend to develop and provide shrimp farmers in Latin America with a novel feed that partially replaces fishmeal and fish oil ingredients with an insect meal made from black soldier fly larvae and an algae oil.

Completing the partnership, Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn (AH), part of the global retail giant Ahold Delhaize, has become the first retailer to commit to the project, stating that the move is in line with its own sustainability ambitions. Among these, the company recently set a new supply chain (Scope 3) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction of 45 percent by 2030 (from a 2018 baseline).

This new feed will be used by Klaas Puul’s suppliers in Latin America to produce shrimp for Albert Heijn, and possibly other retailers in the future.

The partnership was brokered by Shrimp Insights’ Willem van der Pijl.

Klaas Puul Senior Purchase Manager Jan Bootsman, who is also responsible for the project’s implementation, told SeafoodSource the project will initially work with dedicated vertically integrated producers in Ecuador, before expanding to others as it scales.

“We hope that other producers will see the market potential of a proposition where the shrimp is fed with more sustainable feed and that also other farmers outside the project will look for partners to do similar projects,” he said. “We hope that our project contributes to the faster adoption of alternative and more sustainable feed ingredients to make the shrimp industry as a whole more sustainable and resilient in the future.”

The collaboration will start with ... 

Photo courtesy of Nutreco