KMP buys out fish oil interests of Marvesa

03-May-2017 - Last updated on 04-May-2017 at 10:59 GMT

German feed ingredients distributor, Köster Marine Proteins (KMP) has acquired 100% of the fish oil business of the Dutch distributor and trader, Marvesa.

Target markets for Marvesa’s fish oil include fish feed for cold and warm water marine species, pet food, and compound feed.

Prior to this deal, KMO specialized in the supply of ingredients such as fishmeal, sourced from Peru in the main, and soy protein concentrates, but not fish oil.

The German and Dutch distributors have also set up a joint venture, Köster Marine Oils, related to Marvesa’s fish oil activities, currently managed out of Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Lima in Peru.

The Rotterdam business will continue its existing activities but will then transfer to Hamburg in Germany later this year, they said.

KMO and Marvesa stressed that the alliance was a strategic response to worldwide industry trends.

“The joint venture offers a cost synergy and focus on the sourcing of fish products from sustainable resources. It will help fisheries and producers to develop sustainability programs such as IFFO RS [a global standard and certification program for the responsible supply of fishmeal and fish oil],” said a spokesperson for Marvesa.

Increasing demand for fishmeal and fish oil from a growing global aquaculture system has been putting pressure on supply and pushing up prices.

“While Peru currently offers the largest biomass resource, some upcoming regions such as Africa and India are developing quickly and should enable global production growth in both fishmeal and oil,” he told us.

By-product study

Interestingly, the international marine ingredients organization, the IFFO, in its first annual report, released this week, detailed the results of a study it had commissioned from Stirling University on byproduct use in fishmeal and fish oil production.

The project, which began in 2014, aimed to provide an analysis of raw material availability and estimates for the global quantity of fishmeal and fish oil that could be produced assuming that all byproduct could be utilized as raw material.

Nearly 20 million tons of raw material are used annually in the production of marine ingredients, but the model showed an estimated 35m tons are available, should all byproduct be collected.

The model anticipates the market having access to 45m tons of such raw material in 10 years’ time. “The figures provided by this research will help to inform discussions about the future development of the industry, and are important in emphasizing the increasing contribution that byproduct will make to raw material supply,” said the IFFO.