Restråstoff i blå og grønne verdikjeder i Møre og Romsdal – status og mulige bruksområder innen mat, fôr og gjødsel

Summary

This report describes the output of investigations made by researchers in Møreforsking, Runde Environmental Centre and Norwegian Centre for Organic Agriculture (NORSØK) to map the types and amounts of residual raw materials from the green and blue value chains in Møre and Romsdal county. In this county, located on the NW coast of Norway, fishery (and aquaculture) is a very important industry, but the county also has a significant agricultural sector, dominated by grassland and dairy cows. The blue and green value chains are highly different, and the report gives a brief description of how fishery of wild fish and dairy production are carried out in this county by 2020, to better understand the residual raw materials which are, or may become, available from these sectors.
The Norwegian bioeconomy comprises both blue and green value chains. The blue value chain comprises seafood and other products being harvested or raised in the ocean; or raised in water on shore. The green value chain comprises food, wood, fibre and possibly other products being grown or harvested on land. In this report, the blue value chain is restricted to wild, captured fish and shellfish from the sea, hence not including aquaculture. The reason is that in the aquaculture sector, except for the sludge comprised of fish faeces and feed losses, residual raw materials are generally managed very carefully with efficient use of all materials. Further, residual materials from wild fish are easier to integrate as fertilisers in organic growing, which is of high interest for NORSØK. For the green value chain, we have not included residual materials from wood or fibre, with the exception that wool from sheep is included since this material is closely linked to the production of meat and is currently often poorly utilised.
We used information about enterprises from a public register (Brønnøysund) to describe the two value chains by means of the number of enterprises in relevant sectors. All enterprises have a code describing their type of commercial activity, which is used for statistical purpose. The code is called “Nomenclature statistique des Activités économiques dans la Communauté Européenne” (NACE-code) and is part of a system with 21 main sectors A-U where A comprises agriculture, forestry and fishery, sector C comprises industry, and sector G comprises retail activities. All enterprises presented in this report belong to sector A, C or G.
In the blue value chain, we found 1218 enterprises by November 1, 2019. 933 of these were fishing vessels. 154 enterprises were active in retail. For the industry sector, 38 enterprises produced clip fish og dried fish, 58 were slaughtering or processing fresh fish (this number includes fish from aquaculture) and 18 were freezing seafood. An interview survey was made with 18 fishing vessels of various size, and 13 enterprises on shore. Many enterprises called for better utilisation of residual raw materials.
The number of fishing vessels has been rapidly reduced in recent years. In 2018, 632 fishing vessels were registered in Møre and Romsdal; 342 vessels were < 10 m in length. Our interview survey revealed that an average vessel fishing near the coast may produce about 200 tons of residual raw materials per year, whereas a vessel fishing in the open sea may produce about 3000 tons.
From amounts of fish delivered to the marketing organisations owned by Norwegian fisher(wo)men, using conversion factors developed by SINTEF Ocean, we estimate that the amounts of available residual raw materials comprised of heads, liver, roe etc. from white fish (cod, saithe) in Møre and Romsdal comprised 52 892 tons in 2018. 12 600 tons of backbones and skin residues from clip fish adds on to this amount. The total amount of residual raw materials from white fish then comprise 65 492 tons per year. For pelagic fish (herring, mackerel) the amount of available residual raw material is estimated to 53 000 tons, mainly from herring.
The term “available” does not mean that the residual raw materials are not utilised for any purpose as of today. A major part of residual raw materials from fish is used to produce fish meal and fish oil, which is used in aquaculture. However, this utilisation does not pay much off, and more profitable utilisation is of high interest.
In the green value chain, we found 2476 farms and 67 industry enterprises within the most relevant NACE codes. 15 farmers, 3 agricultural advisers and 12 industrial enterprises kindly participated in interviews. More than 965 of the farmland in Møre and Romsdal is used for growing grass and fodder crops. About 18 000 dairy cows in the county produce about 380 000 m3 of slurry (manure) each year. By careful estimate, at least 10% of this, about 40 000 m3, could well have been better disposed of than being applied on farmers’ fields, commonly in too large amounts and too late in the season, impacting negatively on soil and environment. Poor utilisation is also made of about 20 000 m3 of manure with bedding material from about 2000 horses located in Møre and Romsdal. One dairy called for better utilisation of about 300 000 tons of buttermilk each year. Other materials available from the green sector are about 9 tons of wool which is pigmented and hence not well paid; 240 tons of (killed) laying hens; and 6600 tons of manure from laying hens annually. We expected left-over feed (silage) and solid manure (deep bedding materials) to be easily available, but the interviews showed that farmers generally make good use of such materials.
Specialised production of potatoes, vegetables and berries creates losses of products being sorted out, often for minor reasons only such as size and minor damages. This calls for better utilisation.
Current public regulations commonly do not support innovative applications of residual raw materials. For instance, feeding of ruminants with fish residues, which was a traditional practice in Norway before BSE, is not permitted. Insects, a rapidly developing industry, can only be fed with vegetable feed, except for milk products, egg and honey.
Economic conditions are highly different in the blue and green value chains. The blue value chain is mainly directed on exports, and seafood is well paid. This causes that residual raw materials must be paid quite high (e.g. 4,50 NOK per kg) if the fishing vessels shall keep such materials on board, instead of leaving it in the sea. The green value chain has a significant public economic support, and production is for the domestic market. Products are less well paid; the prices requested by the blue value chain for residual raw materials are comparable to what dairy farmers get paid per kg of milk, or first-class potatoes.
The three research institutes collaborating in this project will continue to develop cooperation projects with blue and green industry partners in Møre and Romsdal, to produce knowledge useful for realisation of specific ideas for new products and processes, and thereby increase the local value creation.