Skretting, a global leader in aquafeed solutions, and Volare, a Finnish insect ingredient producer, have agreed on a commercial collaboration further enhance the sustainability and nutritional value of its aquafeed products.
Around 75 percent of the salmon farming carbon footprint arises from feed, and 95 percent of the feed footprint originates from raw materials, partnerships are essential for industry-wide change. One of the challenges is the cost-driven nature of the industry and the associated pressure on ingredients. The commitment of big companies and the entire value chain to novel ingredients before factories are built poses a challenge. Several aquafeed companies have been testing and even using insect meal commercially in recent years and insect-based products have proven to be well-suited for aquafeeds, while reducing the environmental impact of the industry.
Skretting, a global leader in aquafeed solutions, and Volare, a Finnish insect ingredient producer, have agreed on a commercial collaboration where Skretting has secured a substantial capacity in Volare’s forthcoming industrial factory in Finland for their Norwegian salmon feeds. Volare’s insect-based products offer an environmentally friendly solution to the evolving needs of aquafeeds, aligning with Skretting’s ambitious sustainability targets. By incorporating insect protein from Volare, Skretting aims to further enhance the sustainability and nutritional value of its aquafeed products, contributing to a more resilient seafood industry.
Volare’s innovative technology ensures low energy consumption, eliminates the need for fossil fuels, and produces zero wastewater, further enhancing the sustainability of the collaboration. Volare’s ingredient will reduce the CO2 emissions and reliance on wild fish in aquaculture.
Commitment to novel ingredients
“We are constantly looking for novel sustainable raw materials, and this is a welcomed addition to our current supply of insect meal. We need more volume, and this new Nordic supplier and their work to scale up the industrial production of ingredients is good for our industry. We are looking forward to the collaboration with Volare and their focus on sustainable and high-quality products. This aligns perfectly with our values and goals”, says Erling Johansen, purchasing manager for special ingredients at Skretting Norway.
The collaboration leverages the advantages of a Nordic partnership. Typically, the feed industry does not make advance commitments, but for important new sustainable ingredients companies are willing to break the pattern and commit to further improving the industry’s sustainability results.
“Skretting’s expertise and attitude have been impressive. Witnessing how well they understand their customers’ needs and how we can contribute to serving those needs has been inspiring. We look forward to a long-term partnership, creating a large-scale impact together”, says Jarna Hyvönen, Chief Commercial Officer at Volare.
Volare’s insect-based products offer environmental benefits compared to traditional aquafeed ingredients. In terms of protein, CO2 emissions are up to 8 times lower than soy-based alternatives, and there is reduced pressure on land and water usage. Importantly, there is no harm to oceans, in contrast to the potential negative impact of increasing fish meal use on wild fish stocks. In terms of our oil product, the CO2 emissions are significantly lower than palm kernel oil and other plant-based alternatives, with also reduced land use. Volare’s inspiration to focus on insect-based solutions for addressing environmental challenges in aquafeed production stems from a desire to make the food chain more sustainable as quickly as possible and without requiring significant changes in consumer behavior. They see that moving human diets towards more aquaculture products is a way of making the diets more sustainable, and the growing industry will need to find sustainable and scalable solutions to ensure that it really is sustainable from several perspectives – not only emissions, but also from biodiversity on land and oceans point-of-view.
The feed industry is quite cost-driven and they saw that to make a difference in reality would require a solution that could reach price parity with existing ingredients used in aquafeeds. Insects are indeed a scalable and cost-effective solution compared to high-cost and small-scale novel proteins. At the same time insects are a sustainable alternative from emission and biodiversity perspectives, while the production can also be located near the aquafeed production.
The genesis
Volare’s journey in developing insect-based products for aquafeeds began with extensive research at VTT technical research centre of Finland, driven inspiration to find a sustainable solution for the protein gap. The founders, Tuure Parviainen and Matti Tahtinen, came together while researching an ultra-efficient way to keep nutrients in the food chain – with the help of the black soldier fly. Volare’s varied research background is in all things circular economy, not limited to insect economy but also including energy technology, biogas and even emerging fields such as novel foods.
The concepts and technology developed in research now forms the backbone of Volare’s process — using food industry side streams. Volare’s team of engineers, agronomists, operators and researchers are building on decades of experience to create a truly circular future for the food industry. The original Volare plant is already in operation and serving customers in aquafeeds and pet food business. The founders saw that the key elements driving both sustainability and cost-efficiency would be the use of side streams as raw materials and a proprietary dry processing method that reduces energy consumption by 30 percent, is non-fossil, all while producing zero wastewater.
They adopted a customer-centric approach from the outset and wanted to understand what were the product characteristics that are important for our customers and even their customers nutritionally and technically.
“We have built the entire philosophy of the company on finding the most sustainable and cost-effective solutions while reaching high-quality products. We exclusively use side streams as raw materials and employ a proprietary dry processing methodology that uses about 30 percent less energy than traditional wet processing methods. This supports both our sustainability but also cost efficiency. Our process is fully electric and non-fossil, yielding zero wastewater. We have conducted a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) using the industry-standard PEFCR methodology to validate the environmental footprint of its products for the first industrial-scale plant. One of our core values is learning, meaning that we constantly develop ourselves and our processes, finding better ways to do things every day.” says Volare’s Co-founder and CEO Tuure Parviainen.
Long term partnership
Skretting and Volare envision this collaboration as the initial step in a long-term partnership. Volare already has an operational demonstration facility in Finland and will start delivering ingredients to Skretting in 2024. Volare will commence the construction of its first large-scale factory in 2024 and plans for multiple factories across Europe by the end of the decade.
Published in the March 2024 issue of International Aquafeed.
