The Riverence Group’s new partnership with Green Plains will allow the United States’ largest trout producer to expand its aquafeed production.
Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A.-based ethanol producer Green Plains will formulate trout and salmon feeds for the Boise, Idaho-based Riverence Group, incorporating sustainable ingredients including the company’s recently debuted fermented protein product, which will constitute 60 percent of the new feed.
“The Riverence Group is a highly respected aquaculture producer and we are eager to realize the value this collaboration brings to both partners,” Green Plains President and CEO Todd Becker said in a press release. “Using our low-carbon ingredients in Riverence’s feeds can help them achieve their goal of using sustainable, domestically produced plant-based ingredients.”
As part of the joint venture, Green Plains contributed capital and supplied ingredient services, while the Riverence Group contributed existing assets and a feed offtake agreement to support its own production. The joint venture is expected to become operational in 2023.
“The Riverence Group has a simple, actionable definition of sustainability – to do more with less,” Riverence Group President and CEO Rob Young said. “To provide healthy seafood for a hungry world, we need feeds and feed ingredients that nourish our fish as much as our commitment to sustainability. In Green Plains, we have found a partner that is committed to growing domestic aquaculture and stocking the industry’s ‘pantry’ with quality ingredients.”
Historically, aquaculture ingredients have been developed without direct input from customers, Green Plains Executive Vice President of Product Marketing and Innovation Leslie van der Mueller said. The collaboration “allows us to disrupt that trend, and home in on opportunities to optimize our ingredients,” van der Mueller said.
In February 2022, Riverence committed to using Benson Hill soy ingredients in its Rangen aquaculture feed.
Following its 2020 acquisition of Clear Springs Foods, Riverence now operates 14 trout farms with the capacity to produce more than 15,000 metric tons annually, in addition to four broodstock stations, two primary processing facilities, a value-added processing facility, a waste-recovery plant, and a feed mill. It also inherited Clear Springs’ nationwide trucking fleet and distribution network.
At the 2022 Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. in March, Riverence made it public it is branching into selling other seafood species, with the goal of becoming a mainstream seafood distributor.
Photo courtesy of Riverence
