In a competition between eight companies at Seafood Innovation Day NASF 2021, the seafood industry’s own innovation award went to Kuehnle AgroSystems from Hawaii for their fermentation technology that produces natural astaxanthin for aquafeeds.

Kuehnle AgroSystems has developed a patented low-cost fermentation technology that produces natural astaxanthin for aquafeeds. Their breakthrough technology is the high yield production of algae by dark fermentation. The fermentation process enables greater output volumes and lower costs than light-dependent algae production methods.

“The winner has developed a new and innovative technology that enables drastic improvements to the production of an important ingredient in the seafood industry. To increase the consumption of seafood in a growing global population, we need to produce healthy, tasty and sustainable seafood. We need naturally and sustainably produced key ingredients – one of them which the winner is producing – so the market potential is huge. Their fermentation technology presents a breakthrough as they enable cost-efficient and high-volume production of natural astaxanthin for the aquafeed market,” the jury said.

The winner of the award receives NOK100,000 ($12,000), membership in NCE Seafood Innovation, participation at North Atlantic Seafood Forum 2022 and the opportunity to present themselves to the industry at NASF next year. Partner of the Seafood Innovation Award is DNB, Pareto, North Atlantic Seafood Forum and NCE Seafood Innovation.