Total turnover
MuMiPro will create a new way of growing mussels with a dual purpose: Producing animal protein feed ingredients for organic husbandry and improving the marine environment by mitigating eutrophication effects through harvest of mussels. This will introduce new business areas within various sectors.
The mussel industry can potentially provide an increased annual turnover of 700-900 million DKK within 6-10 years, when considering environmental effects, feedstuff value and value of increased organic meat/egg production, but without including the potential value of mussel oil for human consumption.
Mussel farmers and processing industry
The production and processing of mussels will create job opportunities in rural areas worth an expected minimum of 165 million DKK annually just in the primary parts of the value chain. This can be expected to increase with the 2018 EU ban on non-organic ingredients in organic feed.
The aim of MuMiPro is to create the basis for a new production of up to 100,000 t blue mussels or approximately 15,000 t mussel feedstuff annually 6-10 years from now (2016).
Results from MuMiPro will have a trickle-down effect as the optimization of mussel farming techniques will benefit development and expansion of current mussel farming. Furthermore, the processing of mussels to meal and silage and their nutritional value can be applied to other areas like aquaculture and mink farming.
Organic farming
Organic pig and poultry production will benefit from the outcomes of MuMiPro from supply of organic high-quality protein that can support increased production.
Conservatively estimated, MuMiPro can provide feedstuff resulting in an annually increased organic pork, poultry and egg production corresponding to values of respectively 183, 48 and 210 million DKK enabling an increase of more than 100%.
Environmental management
Mussel production used as a mitigation tool can be attractive to e.g. environmental managers and the agriculture business, as they will benefit from creation of a tool that can mitigate effects of eutrophication and thus meet the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive.
The aim of MuMiPro is to create the basis for a new production of up to 100,000 t blue mussels annually 6-10 years from now. This will result in removal of 1-2,000 t N corresponding to 8-15% of the current (2014) national reduction demand and an estimated value of 91-293 million DKK/year.
Results from MuMiPro will have a trickle-down effect as the mitigation concept can be used in relation to other nutrient sources as of how to handle payment of ecosystem services e.g. in marine finfish aquaculture.