A Giant Leap for Fishkind: Veramaris facility in Nebraska starts commercial production

July 29, 2019 |

Just a few weeks ago we were remembering the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and one thing I can’t get out of my head from the Apollo program is Apollo 8 crew member Bill Anders talking about the sight of the Earth from the Moon — how small and beautiful and precious the Earth is when seen against the cold, harsh, backdrop of the vacuum of space.

So here’s the skinny. 3 billion people today rely on marine fish for food. Especially salmon is a rich source of the two essential omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, which are vital for brain, eye and heart health. Spiraling demand for seafood and the consequent pressure on overfishing has fueled the growth of fish farms. Aquaculture, however, compounds the burden on wild fish stocks, since 20% of the wild catch is used to make feed for farmed fish and 75% of all fish oil produced is currently fed to farmed fish.

On the Bad, Bad Leroy Brown scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “no worries, dude” and 10 is Fishmaggedon, we’re at about an 8, or about the “we basically need a speed miracle here” that led us to turn to NASA in the old days.

Great Scott! This is a job for superalgae

In Nebraska, Royal DSM and Evonik celebrated the grand opening of their $200 million Veramaris JV commercial-scale plant located in Blair, producing omega-3 fatty acids rich in EPA and DHA from natural marine algae for sustainable salmon farming. Construction of the new facility was completely on time, on budget and with no lost-time incidents.

The production volumes and site

The Veramaris facility’s initial production capacity of Omega-3 fatty acids rich in EPA & DHA is equivalent to that derived from 1.2 million tons of wild-caught fish. This will meet around 15 percent of the global salmon farming industry’s annual demand for Omega-3 fatty acid.

Evonik’s existing site in Blair was selected to produce the omega-3 fatty acids to take advantage of the fermentative production capacity at the site and the favorable site infrastructure. The Veramaris production will be a zero-waste facility including concepts to utilize by-products in sustainable applications, such as biogas and cattle feed.

The DSM backgrounder

DSM is a leading global integrated nutritional solutions provider to the feed markets with an industry leading portfolio of innovative feed ingredient solutions for aquaculture, a strategic growth segment for its animal nutrition & health business. Veramaris combines DSM’s expertise in the cultivation of marine organisms including algae and long-established expertise in fermentation processes with Evonik’s know-how in the development of industrial biotechnology processes and operating competitively large-scale manufacturing sites for fermentative amino acids.

Responding to the fish oil crisis

In response to a limited, finite availability of fish oil along with soaring demand for seafood, the level of omega-3 EPA and DHA fatty acids in salmon has declined by more than a half over the past decade. This development is not supportive for consumers looking for a healthy food option. Furthermore, the limited wild fish stocks restrict the amount of fish oil available and thus the growth of the aquaculture industry.

Veramaris’ algal oil offers a sustainable alternative: Veramaris’ algal oil goes right back to the source – algae are the original source of Omega-3 fatty acids – making it possible to leave all marine life between the original phytoplankton and algae untouched. The highly concentrated algal oil contains twice the levels of EPA and DHA than fish oil. For the first time, it will enable the aquaculture industry to keep up with the increasing demand for these two essential omega-3 fatty acids and help to reverse the decline of these vital omega-3 levels in farmed salmon without any reliance on fish oil obtained from wild fish stocks. The salmon industry has welcomed this solution and first premium salmon products have been launched by leading retailers across Europe.

Reaction from the stakeholders

DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma commented: “I am pleased that together with Evonik we have reached a key milestone in turning the tide: through Veramaris, we are able to reduce the aquaculture industry’s reliance on the world’s finite fish oil resources for these vital omega-3 fatty acids. This fits perfectly with our purpose-led performance driven strategy, focused on addressing the world’s biggest challenges while simultaneously creating economic, environmental and societal value for all our stakeholders.”

“In Veramaris, we have combined the competencies of two strong partners to make an innovative contribution to the healthy nutrition of the world’s growing population, without putting any further burden on our oceans,” said Christian Kullmann, chairman of the Executive Board of Evonik.

The Bottom Line

When we went to the Moon, we found the Earth, fragile, precious, unprotected, alone — and in our embrace of technology to solve exotic problems, we gained some confidence in our abilities. If we can deliver technology for Lunar Descent, couldn’t we develop and deliver technology to shower the people with the food they need — to garble a great James Taylor lyric in search of a winning metaphor?

Well, yep we can. Of course, we discovered in the journey to the Moon something else about technology — amazing feats of science are accompanied by amazing feats of public will. The will to achieve, the will to deliver, the will to shift priorities to something that exalts the human story at the expense of some human luxuries. Nothing is affordable without Will, for it is Will that sets market prices, because it is the driver of demand in the face of constraints in supply. Will is the price establisher, Will is the invisible hand of the market; what we wish, we Will, and we will accomplish.

The demand for health products — Veramaris’ fortunes in this case — depend on this thing, Will. Nothing is easy, everything requires the resolve to get done and the resolve to afford.

Now know we can, and we should. Next stop, will we? The answer may be as close as the next full moon.

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