The announcement follows on from the success of the company's product development trial at their Wood River biorefinery, in which they reported on increasing the protein content of fermented plant-based extracts to over 63 percent using a unique fermentation process.
“This partnership is yet another validation of our transformational path, creating a portfolio of innovative ingredients tailored to meet specific customer needs,” said Todd Becker, president and chief executive officer of Green Plains, in a press release. “The Riverence Group is a highly respected aquaculture producer and we are eager to realise the value this collaboration brings to both partners. Using our low-carbon ingredients in Riverence’s feeds can help them achieve their goal of using sustainable, domestically produced plant-based ingredients.”
As part of the joint venture, Green Plains contributed capital and supplied key ingredient services, while the Riverence Group contributed existing assets and a feed offtake agreement to support its own production, helping to meet the rapidly growing consumer demand from aquaculture in North America. The joint venture is anticipated to become operational in 2023.
“The Riverence Group has a simple, actionable definition of sustainability - to do more with less,” said Rob Young, president and chief executive officer of the Riverence Group. “To provide healthy seafood for a hungry world, we need feeds and feed ingredients that nourish our fish as much as our commitment to sustainability. In Green Plains, we have found a partner that is committed to growing domestic aquaculture and stocking the industry’s ‘pantry’ with quality ingredients.”
“This unique partnership will allow for end-to-end innovation, bringing ingredient production and fish farming together to create better feeds and better fish,” said Leslie van der Meulen, executive vice-president, product marketing and innovation of Green Plains. “With the recent breakthrough to produce 60%+ protein concentrations at scale, we believe our unique, innovative aquafeed solutions will become disruptive and we are seeing interest in our ingredient solutions globally.”
Green Plains will use its biorefinery platform and innovation center network to continuously improve the sustainable ingredients it creates through fermentation, focusing on the removal of anti-nutritional elements and continuously improving the biological utilization of unique plant-based proteins and yeasts.
