The Aquafeed Technology Centre (ATC), where researchers and the aquaculture industry will work together towards producing more environmentally friendly fish feed, has been officially opened by Norway’s Minister of Fisheries

More than 70 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by farmed salmon comes from fish feed. Every year, the Norwegian salmon industry uses 1.6 million tonnes of feed and 90 percent of the raw materials are imported. The industry is calling for more environmentally friendly feed, and this will be one of the main tasks for the research centre in Bergen.

In 2015, Nofima, the University of Bergen (UiB) and Norce received funding from the Research Council of Norway regarding an application for infrastructure funding. The infrastructure is now pretty much complete and a total of NOK 33.9 million (€3.2 million) has been spent. NOK 32.8 million has been granted by the Research Council of Norway.

“Today, researchers and the industry have received the instruments they need to develop the feed of the future,” said the minister Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen before cutting the ribbon. The minister made it clear that the work conducted at the centre has been based on open research. This means that all industry actors will have access to the results and therefore the pace of innovation can be increased.

“The aquaculture industry is completely dependent on access to more feed containing sustainable raw materials,” Ingebrigtsen said. The Fish Site