Aquaculture Dealflow | Mar 4 - 17, 2023
Bi-weekly roundup of investments and market movements in aquaculture
Spotlight
🌊 After decades of struggle, the United Nations agrees to place 30% of the seas in legal protection by 2030 under the new High Seas Treaty:
This breakthrough – which covers nearly two-thirds of the ocean – marks the culmination of nearly two decades of work and builds on the legacy of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This action is a victory for multilateralism and for global efforts to counter the destructive trends facing ocean health, now and for generations to come.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General
Investments
🌿 Loliware, seaweed materials firm, secures USD 6m in Pre-Series A (total raised: USD 15.4m) from CityRock Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures Group, Geekdom Fund, Ehukai Investments and 5 Pillars Capital to replace single-use plastics with seaweed
🚚 KnowSeafood, US-based direct-to-consumer seafood company, receives undisclosed amount from S2G to open a 2nd distribution facility in California
Acquisitions
🚛 Texas US-based private equity Sole Source Capital acquires California-based Lee Fish USA, importer and value-added distributor from New Zealand, Australia and Japan to the North American market with over 220 farmed and wild-caught offerings, terms undisclosed
🐟 US seafood supplier Fortune International acquires Boston-based seafood processor Boston Sword & Tuna valued at USD 285m
🌿 Australia-based ADEC Innovations acquires Kedge Proprietary Limited, leader in marine compliance and vessel certification, and Southern Ocean Carbon Company, company commercializing giant kelp and seaweed production for CCS and biomass creation
🚚 Canada-based seafood group Cooke Aquaculture acquires Slade Gorton, largest US distributor and manufacturer of fresh and frozen seafood
Funding
🌊 SWEN Blue Ocean Fund oversubscribed at EUR 170m (target EUR 120m) to invest in innovation that tackles over-fishing, pollution and climate change
Grant Funding
🌍 WorldFish’s initiative Asia-Africa BlueTech Superhighway with support from CGIAR and GBP 45m investment from UK gov aims to boost coastal aquatic food production in Asia and Africa
🌍 Zoetis receives USD 15.3m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance veterinary care and diagnostic services to improve fish health and productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa
New Launches
💀 Ace Aquatec unveils the first in-water portable prawn stunner Humane Stunner Universal (A-HSU) following successful trials
🍤 Leveraging existing farmer network and MAX technology, XpertSea launches new data solution XpertSea Responsible Shrimp to help international buyers make sourcing decisions
📚 Skretting launches a global information campaign called The Feed Iceberg to educate wider audience on the role aquaculture plays towards sustainability
💡 Hatch and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) launches 2nd Global Innovation Launchpad for New Zealand aquaculture
💡 Nofima, the Research Council of Norway, establishes a national network for low-trophic aquaculture
Movements
Regulation
🇫🇴 Faroese Government proposes hefty salmon tax increase from 5% up to 20%, effective on Aug 1, 2023 if passed by the Faroese parliament
Alt Feed
🧬 Evonik expands DL-methionine product MetAMINO production capacity by 40,000 metric tons in Singapore
🌾 Corteva and Bunge establish multi-year partnership to develop amino acid enhanced soybean meal
🐛 Ÿnsect, French insect producer, partners with Marubeni to integrate insect protein into feed for farmed fish in Japan
Alt Seafood
🍣 Umami Meats and Triplebar signs letter of intent to collaborate and produce commercially viable, scalable and affordable cultivated seafood
🌱 The ISH Company, plant-based seafood startup, enters strategic distribution agreement with Dot Foods, the largest food industry redistributor in North America
🌿 North Coast Seafoods, US-based seafood supplier, launches kelp meatballs and burgers sourced from Atlantic Sea Farms
🍣 BlueNalu inks partnership agreement with Nutreco to secure food-grade supply chain and support commercialization of cell-cultured bluefin tuna
AI
🤖 Researchers from Can Tho University and Hokkaido University use machine learning fed with shrimp prices from world’s top shrimp exporting countries to predict Vietnamese shrimp prices
Farming
🐡 BlueGen plans to build the first vertical land-based olive flounder farm in South Korea
🌱 Malaysia Sarawak will open Chitose Carbon Capture Central (C4), the world’s largest mass microalgae biomass production facility, in April 2023 with goals to expand to 100 hectares in the next 3 years
🤖 Probotic, Norway-based underwater tech developer, secures a patent for an autonomous fish farm cleaning system that works for both land-based and traditional net pen operations
Roadmaps
🌍 The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) released its Strategic Plan for 2023-2027, Continuously Improving Global Tuna Fishery Sustainability, which aims to achieve tuna fisheries sustainability in the next 5 years
🌏 World Economic Forum’s Blue Food Partnership launches the Global Sustainable Aquaculture Roadmap to guide and strengthen sustainable growth in aquaculture
Notable Reads
🔫 Remarkable squirting mussels captured on film from University of Cambridge, video here