Affirming Skretting’s commitment to CAS segment

Nutreco made its foray into the closed aquaculture systems (CAS) segment in 2020, with investment in Kingfish Zeeland, a Dutch yellowtail kingfish RAS producer.

‘At the time, we were among the first movers to invest in the segment, with the aim to be at the forefront of how the industry developed. Additionally, we wanted to be a catalyst for further innovation in the industry by co-developing feed for this new segment,’ says Bastiaan van Tilburg, CEO of Skretting.

‘We took the responsibility - and the risk - to help the aquaculture industry move towards a more sustainable future and improved social license.’

Since then, Nutreco and its daughter company Skretting have gone on to invest in and support several companies including Nordic Aqua Partners, Proximar, Laxey, Andfjord Salmon, 8F (Pure Salmon), West Coast Salmon, and Aquacon. In helping to set the CAS segment up for success, Skretting has positioned itself as more than just a feed supplier -- it is also a collaborator with a full spectrum of CAS-related services, such as fish quality monitoring, feeding system service audits, and digital solutions.

‘Over the last weeks, we have been telling many stories about what we’ve been doing within CAS and RAS. We talked to several customers in the process, and we saw that time and again, they referred to us as partners,’ says van Tilburg. ‘It was their words, not ours. We say that customer intimacy is one of our strengths, and there is no greater proof than this.’

It is too early to say if Nutreco’s investments in CAS have paid off, as the different segments within CAS are developing at different paces, and are associated with different levels of risk. ‘What we can say is that CAS is an exciting arena that is maturing, and it is exciting to see it evolve. For example, we see some players in Iceland scaling up today, which no one could have predicted when we first started,’ says van Tilburg.

'Skretting still firmly believes in the future of CAS. We remain committed to supporting its long-term success by doing what we at Skretting do best: Continuing to engage closely with our customers, and turning our research and innovation activities into great feed solutions and services.’