Blue Impact is your Blue Journey

To deliver true changes within the aquaculture industry, feed companies must take responsibility and work together with buyers and suppliers. Their positioning within the value chain allows them to identify opportunities to integrate sustainable practices and implement circular economy thinking. To demonstrate progress, BioMar will launch Blue Impact with three sustainability impact parameters. These parameters will continue to improve as we work towards the blue zone, which we consider to be sustainable and true success. However, we will need to partner with farmers who are leaders in sustainability and willing to help us advance aquaculture. Make Blue Impact part of your blue journey and together, we can deliver a sustainable feed solution that will transform aquaculture. 

We must drive change together

With aquafeeds being responsible for the largest environmental impact in aquaculture production , we at BioMar take responsibility for our impact. Being a feed producer and thus buyer of raw materials allows us to take a leadership role in driving sustainable development. We know that to truly drive sustainable practices in aquaculture, we cannot achieve this alone. That is why we must look at the whole value chain and work with both suppliers and customers to identify opportunities where improvements can be made both upstream and downstream, integrating sustainability into the value chain. By forming long-lasting partnerships with our suppliers and buyers, we can develop– or even better –  co-create novel ingredients and drive large-scale application throughout the entire value chain. This is part of the thinking we must adopt.

The other part revolves around circular economy thinking, decoupling feed supply chains from directly competing with food for human consumption. Increasing circular raw material use is important for feed producers, considering the finite and scarce supply of vital nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids and the ever-increasing need to reduce our competition with human food sectors. In a circular economy, resources are kept in use for as long as possible to extract their maximum value. Products and materials are recovered and renewed, leveraging business models designed to support this regenerative activity. BioMar will continue to identify waste streams for direct (or minimally processed) use, and upgrade/upcycle waste streams to higher-value products for use as feedstuff. These feedstuffs will find their way to Blue Impact first to drive the necessary change.

Introduction to impact parameters

Blue Impact will launch with key impact parameters that the feed must meet over a full lifecycle. These parameters range from orange, which we consider unsustainable and in need of immediate attention, to the blue zone, which is our target and what BioMar consider to be sustainable, for the industry to double its production by 2050. The purpose of the impact parameters is to help define which feed meets the necessary criteria to be considered Blue Impact, while also allowing us to continually re-evaluate and improve Blue Impact as we progress through our Blue Journey.

At launch, Blue Impact will be evaluated based on three key parameters:

• Carbon Footprint: less than 2.0 kg CO₂ eq./kg feed
• Circular and Restorative: >25% inclusion of ingredients we consider circular and restorative
• Low Marine Content: Fish Forage Dependency Ratio (FFDR) <0.7 

With consumer awareness of CO₂ emissions growing, and many of our customers aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by as early as 2040, this becomes a key metric that Blue Impact will deliver on. Utilising more circular and restorative ingredients is a key metric for BioMar and forms part of our 2030 Ambitions. By including more of these ingredients, we can drastically improve the sustainability of not only aquaculture, but other food production industries as well. Finally, marine ingredients have always been a key measure of sustainable feed and are only becoming scarcer as our ocean continues to suffer from overfishing. Over the last 30 years, BioMar have reduced the marine content by 75%, however, Blue Impact will continue this trend using the  FFDR to evaluate our feeds’ marine content.

Journey to blue

Overall, Blue Impact will launch as one of the most sustainable feeds we have ever produced, meeting multiple criteria that we define as sustainable. The major challenge for Blue Impact lies with achieving our parameters across all the salmon farming regions we serve, as different local regulations can make certain parameters more difficult to achieve. Therefore, a key part of Blue Impact will be continued improvements as we identify new opportunities to improve our feeds’ sustainability. This will ensure that Blue Impact is always at the forefront of sustainable feed and that we are always working towards the blue zones in our impact parameters.

To do this, we will need to evaluate the whole value chain, embrace circular economy thinking, utilise novel ingredients and be at the forefront of any potential developments in feed production. As a result, the resources available to produce feeds under our Blue Impact brand will be limited and we can only offer the diet to a select few customers. That is why we are looking for forward thinking customers who are leaders in sustainable aquaculture to join us in our Blue Journey. We need to work with key customers to continually innovate and work towards the blue zones to achieve what we consider true blue success. Make Blue Impact your Blue Journey and help us transform aquaculture.

For decades, BioMar have worked towards improving the sustainability of our feeds and driving sustainable practices within aquaculture. Blue Impact is the next major step in our Blue Journey. Our own impact parameters will allow us to continually monitor and improve Blue Impact as we progress through the Blue Journey, reach the blue zones, and achieve true success. However, reaching the blue zones will not be easy. We must evaluate our entire value chain to identify opportunities both upstream and downstream of operations where we can make significant improvements. We must look to form partnerships with circular economy thinking partners. And we must work together with the whole value chain to continually improve Blue Impact. Blue Impact is not just the next major step in our journey, but also your Blue Journey to drive sustainable development of the industry and transform aquaculture.