In a landmark move, retailer Metro Turkey has partnered with Skretting Turkey and leading local fish producer Hatko Aquaculture to present Turkish consumers with sea bass and sea bream farmed under optimal conditions and fed a diet containing algal oil, delivering more omega-3 while reducing the use of wild fish in feed.
In the project, titled “Enough for today, ready for tomorrow”, Metro Turkey is pioneering the sales of locally produced, farm-raised fish under its own brand, focusing on supporting the sustainable future of aquaculture in Turkey. Metro Turkey CEO Sinem Türüng says, “Eighty five percent of fish stocks in the world are either completely used or overfished. As a global community with 7.5 billion people now, our population is expected to rise to 9.5 billion by 2050. Consequently, the foresight concerning the obligation to increase existing global food production capacity almost two-fold by the middle of this century makes the issue of long-term food and feed safety one of the most urgent obligations we are faced with today.
We believe that our project will be a significant project that will support development of sustainable fishing aquaculture in our country.
“As a brand that has been working for a long time to serve the best-quality, traceable products, we apply our experience and knowledge on to this project as well. We believe that our project will be a significant project that will support development of sustainable fishing aquaculture in our country, ensuring more fish reach our dinner tables in healthy methods and contributing to national economy. We are very pleased to realise this project that will be an example of sustainable fishing aquaculture for consumers, our sector, and our country.”
To ensure these ambitions can be met, Skretting Turkey developed a new feed solution for the project. Thanks to this specially designed feed that includes a percentage of algal oil, the project that will produce 150 tonnes of seafood will prevent the use of 180 tonnes of wild fish. The algal oil inclusion also ensures that the seafood products will have a higher omega-3 content, providing health benefits to consumers.
Skretting Turkey General Manager Ziya Özaydın says, “Metro Turkey's project, which brought us together, is a multi-stakeholder movement in the fish production value chain in Turkey. All parties to the project help secure a healthy supply of seafood and support each other in achieving sustainability goals for aquaculture. In order to achieve this, we also need to focus on innovative resources that will increase in availability as the industry grows, such as the algal oil we used in our diets.
Finding and scaling alternative raw materials requires innovation, and we can only sustain this through close collaboration and strategic partnerships along the value chain.
“Finding and scaling alternative raw materials requires innovation, and we can only sustain this through close collaboration and strategic partnerships along the value chain. At Skretting, we found that the biggest limitation in implementing new content is scale. This project has provided the space for a game-changing dialogue to mobilise the necessary resources, and highlights why we are involved in the project. We firmly believe that together with our stakeholders Metro Turkey and Hatko Aquaculture, we can make a real impact on global sustainability.”
“Today, where sustainability gains importance in every field, it is of great importance to keep the effects on the environment and natural resources at a minimum during the production processes of healthy and high quality seafood products,” says Hatko Group General Manager Baran Ergüven.
“In line with our mission in this direction, we produce healthy and high-quality sea bass and sea bream in accordance with the most up-to-date internationally accepted quality, environmental and social responsibility standards with our trained and experienced team. We believe that our work in the field of sustainability of fisheries within the scope of this project, which we have carried out together with Skretting under the leadership of Metro Turkey, and which overlaps with our mission that we have followed for years, will carry our country and the industry further. We are happy to be a part of this collaboration.”
The milestone was reached by our operations in Chile, and the learnings will be used to accelerate the certification process in the rest of Skretting’s operations globally.
