Aquaculture Dealflow | Jan 20 - Feb 3, 2023
Bi-weekly roundup of investments and market movements in aquaculture
Happy Friday fellow readers. Here’s my pick of news items driving the past two weeks. Enjoy and have a great weekend ahead.
Headline - 2023 Predictions
The decline in stocking levels for shrimp in the last 3 months of 2022 continues to hamper global shrimp production in the 1st half of 2023. However, sentiment on global shrimp supply remains positive with Robobank forecasting 6 million metric tons (MT) of production in 2023 with expected 18-30% YoY growth in Ecuador’s shrimp production compounded with production rebound in China and India (pushing Asian production above 4 million MT in 2023). Consolidation is expected in 2023 with small players in Asia and Ecuador exiting the market as cost of production rises above sell price.
In the Atlantic salmon-farming sector, 2022 delivered the 1st overall salmon production decline since 2016 with normalization of growth expected from 2023 to 2024 as both Norway and Chile implement regulatory controls to moderate supply growth. Lower growth expected in Norway and Chile paves a path forward for Iceland and Faroe Islands with Robobank predicting 6.2% production increase in Iceland in 2023 and 10% production increase in Faroe Islands in 2024. Demand for salmon has continued to remain strong even as prices increase.
Global demand for tilapia fish is predicted to increase at 4.6% CAGR over the next 10 years. Latin America is expected to lead the growth in production (4.8% increase in 2023) although current volumes are still small in comparison to China, Egypt, and Indonesia.
Price volatility for feed ingredients remains the top concern in 2023. Rising input prices, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical troubles will continue in 2023 forcing seafood industry to abandon “just-in-time” inventory management and implement “just-in-case” strategies by putting logistics front and center in overall management.
Announcements
🌿 Hatch Innovation Services unveils new knowledge platform for the global seaweed industry called Seaweed Insights
🍤 Global Shrimp Forum 2023 begins registration: September 5-7, 2023 | Utrecht, Netherlands (early bird until April 1, 2023) register here
📚 Blue Aqua launches education initiative The Doctor Shrimp Academy to provide both hard and soft skills for those interested in the business of shrimp farming: March 20-22, 2023 | Singapore (application closes Feb 17, 2023)
Investments
🪰 Entocycle, UK-based supplier of technology to insect farming industry, secures USD 5m in Series A round from Climentum Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Teampact Ventures, ACE & Company and angel investors in preparation for commercial roll-out
🌱 Kelpi secures GBP 3m seed funding to advance pioneering technology creating biomaterial coatings from seaweed. Round led by Science Creates Ventures and Green Angel Syndicate, with participation from One Planet Capital, Bristol Private Equity Club, angel investors and a GBP 665k grant from Combined Investor Partnership
♻️ Hyperthermics, Danish biotech startup that turns fish sludge waste from RAS facilities into biogas and protein, secures NOK 18m in new round of funding with additional NOK 20m pre-committed for Q2 from exiting investor
🍤 ISH Company, producer of Shrimpish plant-based alternative seafood, secures USD 5m in seed funding led by ACCELR8 with participation from Stray Dog Capital post B Corp certification and partnership with Thai Union
🍣 New School Foods, Canadian-based alt seafood producer, raises USD 12m in seed funding to produce whole-cut salmon alternatives from Lever VC, Blue Horizon, Hatch, Good Startup, Alwyn Capital, Joyance Partners and grants from Protein Industry Canada
Acquisitions
📦 Portuguese seafood group Brasmar acquires UK-based importer and distributor Holmes Seafood who sells over 300 products throughout the British Isles and Europe to the wholesale catering, foodservice, and retail sectors
🚚 Sykes Seafood acquires trading assets of The Big Prawn Co to create a USD 550m European shrimp supply giant and operate 6 manufacturing sites and 10 distribution centers across UK and Europe
🐞 Nordic investor Hawk Seafood takes majority stake in Sea Farm Innovations, a supplier of mechanical delousing equipment to Norway’s aquaculture industry
Funding
🖨 Sweden-based Mycorena and Austria-based Revo Foods collaborative project received EUR 1.5m grant from Swedish innovation agency Vinnova, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency, and Eurostars to produce customized mycoprotein for 3D printing
🇨🇦 Canada allocates CAD 40m in the next 2 years toward shellfish-sector recovery efforts following Hurricane Fiona in September 2022
🇯🇵 Japanese government-owned firm Tokushima Auction Market to invest over USD 1bn in a Filipino offshore aquaculture project
Movements
Algae
🌱 New Zealand scientists produces the world's first algae-based pain medication as non-addictive alternative to opiods for long-term pain relief
Feed
📈 IFFO reports YoY increase in total cumulative output of fish oil and YoY decrease in total cumulative fishmeal production from 2021 Nov to 2022 Nov. China maintains dominant market status with 23 million mt aquafeed production in 2022
📈 Per Alltech, in 2022, China (260.7 million metric tons), US (240.4 MMT) and Brazil (81.9 MMT) were the top 3 feed-producing countries. Top 10 countries produced 64% of the world’s feed production. 50% of global feed consumption is concentrated in 4 countries: China, US, Brazil and India. Aquaculture feed production grew 2.7%
🇮🇳 India cuts customs duty on shrimp feed to promote exports
🌎 The Institute for Feed Education and Research releases its Animal Food Industry Sustainability Toolkit at IPPE to guide feed grain and oilseed processors, animal feed and pet food manufactures, ingredient suppliers and equipment manufacturers through internal sustainability programs
🌾 Study on juvenile Pacific white shrimp shows rice protein meal (crude protein content is generally 60-68%) can replace 10% of the fishmeal in diets without adverse effects on growth (research details here)
🐟 Next Tuna, tuna farming startup, inks a feed development alliance with Skretting to jointly develop dry feed for Atlantic bluefin from first feeding to transfer at 10kg. More on Next Tuna here
🧬 BASF and Cargill announces expanded cooperation in US to develop new enzyme technologies and applications
🌾 Benson Hill, food tech firm unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants, collaborates with BioMar to advance BioMar’s responsible sourcing program by leveraging Benson Hill soy sustainability impact on high-performance aquafeed formulations
🌱 Vegan seafood company Boldly makes plant-based seafood debut with its calamari, shrimp, salmon and tuna sashimi offerings derived from konjac root vegetable
💊 Aller Aqua develops new feed Support L, proven successful in controlling and preventing the most common bacterial diseases on fish farms in field tests for both freshwater and saltwater species
Farming
🌞 AKVA signs green energy partnership with Norwegian company Inseanergy to install floating solar energy production and reduce running time of the diesel generator by up to 90%
🐞 Trials reveal low sea lice numbers and reduced sea lice treatments with AKVA group’s Nautilus pens 🌬 Adsorptech unveils highest power efficiency oxygen generator EcoGen VPSA Oxygen, achieving 0.75 kW/100 cubic foot, 0.28 kW/Nm3
🍃 OLAMUR project, which integrates aquaculture with offshore renewable wind energy production kicks off in Norway
Health & Genetics
🐠 Scientists identified the presence of the Klebsiella pneumoniae bacterium in Nile tilapia causing myriad of diseases in both humans and intensive tilapia aquaculture
😷 Researchers show that presence of microplastics can affect the severity of IHNV infections in salmonid aquaculture
🐡 Marbase and Miawpukek First Nations signs MOU to cooperate in the 1st lumpfish hatchery in Marystown, Canada
🐟 Sparos releases ficoEst, a free tool to estimate the body composition (crude protein, crude lipids, water, ash, phosphorus and energy) of farmed fish to help fish nutritionists and farmers calculate nutrient utilization rates
Downstream
🚛 Research shows subcooling, i.e. rapidly bringing temperature of fish down to 0 degrees Celsius, can reduce the use of packaging and transportation by NOK 70/kilo for road transportation and NOK 2.70/kilo for air shipping
🚚 Aquasend unveils submersible, real-time dissolved oxygen and temperature sensor for transportation
Notable Reads
Study reveals influence of krill availability on humpback whale pregnancies by University of California - Santa Cruz
Data from Antarctica show more humpback whales get pregnant after years with abundant krill than after years when krill were less plentiful… "Continued warming and increased fishing along the Western Antarctic Peninsula, which continue to reduce krill stocks, will likely impact this humpback whale population and other krill predators in the region.”
Unearthing the Original Mediterranean Diet by Paul Greenberg
Counting ancient fish to establish a baseline for classical fisheries may seem like a rather arcane, academic thing to do during a time of climate crisis and profound environmental disruption. But baselines are important. You cannot restore what you cannot remember.