Rune Bjerke and Elin Eidesvik at C-feed. (Photo Credit: Thor Nielsen)
NORWAY
Wednesday, May 06, 2015, 01:50 (GMT + 9)
A new baby fish feed factory began to be built outside Trondheim. The cutting edge plant, which will manufacture feed from copepods, will be the first of its kind worldwide.
The plant is built by Norwegian company C-Feed using unique technology from SINTEF, which is Scandinavia’s largest independent research organization, and it is expected it will open in autumn. C-Feed is a spin-off of Sintef.
The tiny crustaceans are intended for the production of ballan wrasse, tuna, halibut and other marine species.
It is estimated the plant implies an investment amounting to NOK 13 million (USD 1.7 million) in fresh capital with an annual market potential of NOK 2 billion (USD 263 million).
“Until now, cultivating tuna has been an extremely demanding, not to say impossible, process. Our copepods have turned out to be very suitable as baby food for fry, and we believe that tuna could represent a major market for us, since tuna are in great demand with sushi enthusiasts all over the world,” pointed out C-Feed CEO Rune Bjerke.
In addition, Bjerke explained that ballan wrasse cultivation offers great market potential, particularly in Norway and that the species is in demand as one of the most effective methods of combatting lice attacking fish, since it eats this plague that lives on the skin of salmon held in fish-cages.
Sources consulted by FIS.com reported that C-Feed management intends to use the extra capital gathered from new investors, existing shareholders and Innovation Norway to build and operate the new factory in Vanvikan outside Trondheim.
“We are greatly looking forward to making the jump from small-scale production to the industrialisation of copepod cultivation,” stressed Bjerke.
The company has already started small-scale exports to customers in several European countries, and expects that its turnover will be in the region of NOK 10 million (USD 1.3 million) in the first full year of operation of the new plant.