Delft, The Netherlands-based Veramaris has received full market authorization in Canada to include its algal oil in salmonid feed.
Veramaris announced on 11 March it secured the authorization after a three-year registration process, opening the market to its algal oil for the first time. Veramaris CEO Gertjan de Koning told SeafoodSource during Seafood Expo North America – which ran from 10 to 12 March in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. – that the registration was the final step in getting its product to market.
“We are now registered in all the major salmon- and shrimp-producing companies,” de Koning said. “Going into Canada, they pre-warned us that it was a lengthy process.”
Soon after the registration went through, he said, companies began reaching out.
“Some of the parties that we are connected with are in Canada, and we could finally bring them the good news,” de Koning said. “Orders started flowing immediately. Some parties have really been waiting for this to happen.”
Skretting Canada Commercial Director David Seeley told SeafoodSource that the company has already been using Veramaris’s algal oil in its feed in the U.S. and has been waiting for it to be legal in Canada.
“It’s fantastic news. We were waiting for it and pushing for it,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of interest in the market.”
Veramaris has been seeing an uptick in worldwide demand for its products,.and the company’s algal oil is now being used in aquaculture feed in Norway, Chile, Ecuador, and elsewhere, de Koning said.
“If you really compare the situation a few years ago to the situation today, it’s completely different. A few years ago, we were pushing and pulling and struggling to get traction for our products,” de Koning said.
De Koning said Veramaris is currently “sold out” of its algal oil as the demand is outstripping its ability to supply products to the market from its Blair, Nebraska, U.S.A.-based facility, which the company purchased in 2019.
“Right now, we’re looking at expansion projects because we feel that even if we would double the capacity that we have today, we would still be sold out,” de Koning said, adding that a core driver has been an overall shortage of fish oil, which caused prices to increase.
The Peruvian Production Ministry canceled the main anchovy fishing season in the country’s north-central zone in 2023, removing a significant source of the raw material used in global fishmeal production. That cancelation wasn’t the first bottleneck, despite aquaculture production continuing to increase.
That meant companies have turned to Veramaris’s algal oil, and the trend is likely to continue as fish oil supplies remain stagnant, de Koning said.
“With the demand always increasing, there is not going to be enough,” he said. “Now, people have been really confronted with what happens when there is a lack of fish oil, what happens to prices, and what the compromises are that you have to make in your formulations.”
The problems with the Peruvian fishery won't be the last the industry faces, he said.
“This crisis will not be the last crisis,” de Koning said.
Looking forward, Vermaris has secured long-term contracts with a number of companies so in the event another crisis hits, those companies will have access to the company’s algal oil.
As of May 2023, Veramaris became profitable, de Koning confirmed, and has been profitable every quarter since – proving the original USD 200 million (EUR 183 million) investment in the Nebraska plant has paid off.
