New opportunities: Rimfrost plans new vessel as krill demand increases

02-May-2017 - Last updated on 03-May-2017 at 14:34 GMT

Norwegian krill player Rimfrost says new opportunities and an increased demand are driving plans for a new higher capacity harvest vessel.

The firm told NutraIngredients that it is seeing ‘significant enthusiasm’ from the international market after a recent International Trade Commission (ITC) case was withdrawn.

“After several challenging years, the global krill market is now showing real signs of recovery,” said Stig Remøy, owner of Rimfrost.

“There is no doubt that the withdrawal of Aker Biomarine's complaint to The International Trade Commission (ITC) had positive effects. The patent conflict has had major negative impact on the global krill market for a long time. With this case resolved, new opportunities are now emerging,” he added.

Remøy added that market improvements, alongside new technologies and new ways to utilise krill have made him optimistic for the future.

Rimfrost plans a new krill harvest vessel, after the vessel it previously used – Juvel – was sold at auction due to the bankruptcy of Emerald Fisheries which owned the vessel.

“Rimfrost placed bids during the auction of the vessel Juvel, but failed,” said Remøy. “This was not crucial for Rimfrost, but the plans for a new and more effective vessel will be accelerated due to this.”

The Juvel was bought by rival Krill firm Aker BioMarine. Rimfrost says it has now started planning the construction of a new harvest vessel, and that krill supply will not be an issue during the intervening period.

“We would now invest in a new vessel with higher capacity as we have a second licence which we will now activate. We will not have any supply issues in the transaction period,” Rimfrost added.