Job losses at leading Danish fishmeal producer
The job cuts will be seen at the company's Thyboron and Esbjerg processing plants, as first reported by FodevareWatch.
"TripleNine Denmark announced on Monday [September 9] that we have plans to lay off around 33 employees.
"Immediately after the announcement, negotiations with the employees and their organizations started, in accordance with Danish legislation.
"The exact number and names of the employees that will be laid off is expected to be announced by the end of September," TripleNine CEO, Jes Bjerregaard, told FeedNavigator.
The fishmeal producer is feeling the impact of the reduced 2020 quotas for blue whiting and Baltic sea sprat, there are concerns also that the low 2019 quotas for sizzling and North Sea sprat will be maintained.
"The quotas on industrial fish in Denmark are decreasing, and, thereby, the volume to our factory is decreasing significantly compared to prior years," said the CEO.
In addition, pressure is increasing on Danish companies given that the Norwegian kroner has weakened 40% compared to the Danish kroner over the past five years, Bjerregaard told FodevareWatch.
Profits fell substantially for TripleNine in its most recent accounting period, going from from DKK 111 million ($16.4m) to DKK 24m, as per the FodevareWatch article.
Doing less with more for fish health
Last month, we reported on how TripleNine was collaborating with Danish fish feed manufacturer, Aller Aqua, on a research project to identify components of marine raw materials that may benefit fish health and growth.
TripleNine has been working in this area for several years, with it having managed to extract a highly concentrated source of phospholipids from marine resources for use in fish feed.
Aller Aqua will trial the newly developed ingredient in fry feed at its test facility in Germany, said Dr Hanno Slawski, Group R&D director, Aller Aqua.
These highly concentrated marine phospholipids mimic parts of the natural food of the fry very closely, he said.
“Due to the scarcity of fishmeal and fish oil, we need to make maximum use of what is available,” said Slawski.
Kenneth Storbank, chief commercial officer, TripleNine, also commented on the initiative: “As the aquaculture sector aims to increase sustainability, we, as marine ingredient developers, need to aid the process by introducing and actively collaborating to test product improvements and alternatives to the already known products.”
