Forest Fish the fish of the future grow on trees

Important results from the project

The project Forest Fish is a new way of thinking about Swedish food production, where residual streams from the forest are turned into food via fish feed. At the same time, a local market is created in the form of environmentally friendly fish farming. The has in stage 1 brought stakeholders together along the value chain ´forest to table´, to create a circular and sustainable production of farmed fish based on Nordic conditions. The main focus is on fish feed, which in addition to being an environmental challenge has great economic potential in the international market.

Expected long term effects

Two major environmental challenges are addressed by the project: (1) sustainable production of animal feed, and (2) the eutrophication of lakes and seas. Today´s feed production is based largely on imported raw materials like soy and fish meal, associated with environmental problems such as deforestation and overfishing. In stage 1 we have shown that by cultivating microorganisms on forest resources we can produce more environmentally friendly animal feed and have also created possibilities for scale-up of the technology in the next stage.

Approach and implementation

As planned, the most promising technology tracks have been selected and linked together to form two complete value chain with the goal of demonstrating technology in stage 2. Market analysis has resulted in a clear picture of the concept´s commercial potential. Structural factors surrounding legislation have also been analyzed. We have involve a number of players that are active in the existing value chain for farmed fish today, but also players that can help create demand for fish farmed from the forest in particular, as well as actors that can ensure proper technology scale-up.