US agricultural bioscience company Yield10 Bioscience and aquafeed giant BioMar Group have entered a long-term partnership to commercialise a Camelina crop containing enriched levels of EPA and DHA equal to fish oil.
According to the partners, after a decade of research, this omega-3 Camelina technology is now advancing toward market availability and has the potential to become another important, high-quality supplement to the scarce supply of marine long-chain fatty acids.
The product contains EPA and DHA levels comparable to many of the marine oil sources utilised today. It is designed for the needs of the aquaculture industry and is a complementary fit into the BioMar Omega Technology concept together with other sources of essential omega-3s.
BioMar has been actively involved with the Rothamsted Omega-3 Camelina development effort since its inception in 2013 and has conducted many of the salmon trials published by the Rothamsted research team.
“A partnership with BioMar has the potential to combine the strengths of both companies for the accelerated development of the omega-3 Camelina product. We look forward to working closely with BioMar to develop a collaborative programme to bring this new source of high-quality EPA and EPA+DHA omega-3 oils to the market to strive to meet the aquaculture industry’s growth demand and sustainability goals,” said Oliver Peoples, President and CEO of Yield10 Bioscience.
Over the next year, Yield10 expects to scale-up planted acres of Camelina to supply BioMar with oil for formulation and testing while also working towards securing regulatory approval for commercial production of omega-3 Camelina oil and meal in the targeted production geographies.
“We believe that the Yield10 omega-3 Camelina technology represents a potentially excellent solution for producing crop omega-3 oils at commercial scale. Reliable and scalable sources of EPA and DHA is critical for aquafeeds to ensure the sustainable development of the aquaculture industry. We look forward to working together with the Yield10 team to make this product a commercial success,” BioMar CEO Carlos Diaz said.
