Tasmania-based Sea Forest—a startup producing feed supplements from Asparagopsis seaweed to curb livestock methane emissions—has struck a long-term partnership with Dutch animal health giant Orffa to distribute Sea Forest’s products.
The agreement includes an exclusive deal for distribution of Sea Forest’s SEAFEED products across the EU and non-exclusive deals to distribute to other countries.
Orffa and Sea Forest have been working with contract research organizations, universities, and industry stakeholders for several years to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of SEAFEED products to form the basis for product registrations and subsidy schemes, said Orffa director of marketing and innovation, Arno van der Aa. “As methane reduction initiatives are receiving more interest, this is the moment to explore market entrance.”
Asked to clarify the regulatory status of SEAFEED products in the EU, cofounder and CEO Sam Elsom told AgFunderNews: “Sea Forest has multiple products both natural [classified as feed materials] and manufactured [classified as feed additives] with the latter working through the regulatory pathway in the EU.”
Production capacity
While Sea Forest will initially export the product from Australia, he said, “The long-term goal is to see it manufactured in the region [the EU] and we have identified a number of suitable sites. But for now, we have sufficient capacity from our operations in Australia and will take steps to advance expansion as market demand increases.”
He added: “The company has since its inception worked to develop operations on the east coast of Tasmania, and was the first in the world to build at-scale Asparagopsis cultivation and develop cost effective feed formulations which fit into a range of farming systems from beef, dairy to grazing livestock.
“We have been collaborating with industry since 2019 to refine these products and supported independent research to ensure the products are efficacious, safe for animals and have no impact on the quality of meat, milk or fibers. We have also demonstrated over the past 18 months the performance benefits to producers, which has been critical to driving adoption.”
The partnership
According to Elsom, Orffa is “Sea Forest’s distributor, not customer.”
He added: “Orffa is one of the largest animal nutrition distribution companies in Europe with existing relationships with major beef and dairy producers across the region. However, Sea Forest has developed deep relationships with retailers and brands such as Mars and others looking to address methane emissions from their supply chain.
“This agreement signifies a true partnership utilizing the strengths of both parties and working to educate and support producers to reduce emissions while supporting brands and retailers who rely on these products to recognize the environmental outcomes through their reporting frameworks.”
Who pays for methane reduction on farms?
When it comes to who will pay for methane-reducing feed supplements (farmers/meat and dairy processors/consumers?) or whether they could ultimately pay for themselves through increased yields or carbon credits, it depends on the market, said Elsom.
In the EU, he noted, compliance is a major driver, with many companies making commitments to reduce Scope 3 emissions and some countries introducing schemes to encourage companies to reduce emissions.
“Countries in the EU have introduced initiatives to support farmers with emissions reduction. Companies like Friesland Campina have a dairy sustainability dashboard rewarding farmers with milk premiums for reducing emissions, while the Danish government has introduced a tax on livestock which could be avoided by using a product like ours.”
Over 150 countries have also signed the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to reduce methane emissions by at least 30% versus 2020 levels, he added.
“Ultimately, SEAFEED is one of the most efficacious and low-cost solutions to enteric methane abatement and will be business as usual at some point in the future.”
As for productivity gains, he said, “Trials [in the EU] were designed to explore efficacy, animal welfare and food safety. We have a large-scale pilot underway in the EU to demonstrate productivity which will run over the next few months.”
Sea Forest’s SEAFEED range can be applied in dairy, beef, and small ruminant (sheep, goat) rations, either through premix and compound feed manufacture or directly on farm.
Enteric methane production
A potent greenhouse gas, methane is produced in ruminants such as cows and sheep in a stomach compartment called the rumen. Here, microbes break down complex carbs to produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen, which are in turn converted into methane by another set of microbes (methanogens) and belched out.
Approaches to tackling enteric methane production vary, with innovative startups and academics exploring everything from vaccines to breeding animals that produce less methane, to editing the genes of the microbes in the rumen.
While some of these approaches may take years to hit the market, several feed supplements that interfere with the production of methane in ruminants are already commercially available, although questions remain over who will ultimately foot the bill: farmers, processors, or consumers?
Further reading:
CH4 Global teams up with Mitsubishi on livestock methane reduction
ArkeaBio: Vaccination is ‘the lowest cost and easiest to scale’ livestock methane reduction solution
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