Including representatives from Skretting, Klaas Puul, Protix and Veramaris
Through this initiative, Skretting Ecuador, part of Dutch animal nutrition company Nutreco, will produce a new feed that will partly replace fishmeal with Protix’s insect meal, made from black soldier fly larvae, while the fish oil will be partially substituted by Veramaris’s MSC/ASC-certified algae oil – a restorative source of the essential omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, necessary for the health and performance of farmed shrimp.
One hundred percent of the remaining marine ingredients will be sourced from seafood processing by-products, and all will be traceable back to MarinTrust-accredited fisheries in Ecuador. What’s more, the soy in the feed will be sourced from deforestation-free and land-conversion-free origins, making the feed proposition a significant improvement in terms of environmental responsibility compared with most conventional shrimp feeds on the market today.
This feed will be used by Klaas Puul’s suppliers in Latin America to produce sustainable shrimp for Albert Heijn - he largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands -and, in the future, possibly other retailers in dedicated ponds in Latin America.
“It’s an exciting moment for Klaas Puul, which is taking its role in the shrimp supply chain to the next level by helping global retail organisations meet their environmental sustainability ambitions. Working with partners like Nutreco/Skretting, Veramaris and Protix shows us how instrumental we can be in bringing more sustainable shrimp products to consumers across Europe,” said Alan Dale, CEO of Sykes Seafood and Ruskim in the UK, and Klaas Puul in the Netherlands.
“This initiative is a great example of putting our purpose of Feeding the Future into action. Working closely with Nutreco’s corporate sustainability director José Villalón, Skretting Ecuador will deliver one of the most sustainable farmed shrimp feeds on the market today. This will help us meet the targets of our Sustainability RoadMap 2025, particularly ensuring 5-10 percent inclusion of novel ingredients in feed formulations. We are proud of being part of this value chain collaboration that will move the needle forward to bringing a sustainable solution to end consumers,” said Carlos Miranda, general manager of Skretting-Ecuador.
Over time, the consortium aims to increase the inclusion rates of insect meal and algae oil and look at other options to further reduce dependency on marine ingredients. The consortium will also guarantee that all shrimp is produced from unablated broodstock and is ASC certified.
For Albert Heijn, this project is a perfect fit with its ever-growing sustainability ambitions. It has recently set a more ambitious supply chain (Scope 3) GHG emissions reduction target: from a reduction of 15 percent to a reduction of 45 percent GHG emissions by 2030 (with a 2018 baseline).
