Green Plains Inc. and Optimal Fish Food LLC recently announced that they have formed Optimal Aquafeed, a 50/50 joint venture to produce high-quality aquaculture feeds utilizing proprietary techniques and high-protein feed ingredients.

The joint venture combines Green Plains’ production capabilities, commodity expertise and back office knowledge with Optimal Fish Food’s intellectual property, industry expertise and customer relationships and does not require a material capital investment for success, the announcement said.

Green Plains and Optimal Fish Food said they believe there is significant room for nutritional improvements in aquaculture feeds through research and understanding today’s rapidly changing availability of ingredients, especially next-generation, high-protein feed ingredients that will be produced at Green Plains’ ethanol plants in the future.

By incorporating high-quality agricultural products along with plant-based proteins, algae and other single-cell protein ingredients, Optimal Aquafeed will be able to meet the unique and growing needs of aquaculture producers globally, the companies said.

“Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, and we have an opportunity to become a key supplier of high-quality protein aquafeed,” Green Plains president and chief executive officer Todd Becker said. “This joint venture perfectly aligns with our strategy to invest in high-protein process technology, providing us a pathway to a significant, growing customer base. We have partnered with global leaders in aquaculture feed formulation that will bring higher realized values not only for the high-protein products we will produce but will also service customers worldwide that are looking for alternatives to traditional fish meal-based feeds. We believe this relationship will maximize the value of our products, further reducing the volatility of our earnings in the future as well as accelerating our confidence to invest in the transformation of our current ethanol platform.”

Optimal Fish Food principal Bill Harris added that the new partnership "will help change the relationship between ingredient suppliers, feed manufacturers and fish producers to bring a new approach to transparency, quality and fish performance within the industry. The market is moving away from traditional fish meal diets, and the development of new high-protein products from Green Plains will not only enhance feed conversion in many species of fish but also allow aquaculture producers to better serve a growing market of consumers looking for products that are not widely available in the market today.”

Incorporating novel high-protein feed ingredients into Optimal Aquafeed’s complete feed products offering provides growth and health benefits beyond today’s protein feed levels, the companies said. As consumers globally demand increasing ingredient transparency, Optimal Aquafeed is being positioned to bring these non-animal-based, next-generation ingredients to market in both conventional and recirculating aquaculture system-specific feeds, according to the announcement.

Aquaculture is expected to supply approximately 62%, or 93 million tons, of the world’s seafood supply by 2030, according to a study the two companies cited by World Bank. To serve this growing industry, Optimal Aquafeed will match appropriate feed formulations to the unique needs of producers’ fish species, rearing systems and locales. The ability to create high-quality, high-performance feeds in specialized formulations will be key to sustaining and expanding the aquaculture industry’s tremendous global growth.

Green Plains is a diversified commodity processing business with operations related to ethanol production, grain handling and storage, cattle feeding and commodity marketing and logistics services.

Optimal Fish Food is a feed company targeting the recreational fish marketplace by providing high-performance fish feeds designed to grow trophy fish. The company employs a rigorous approach to feed formulations, ingredient selection, biological assessment and specialized extruder technology. Optimal Fish Food sells aquafeeds throughout the U.S. through distributors as well as directly from its online store.