Profile Leo Wezelius (left), CMO and
Angelo Demeter, head of R&D, both co-founders of Volta Greentech.
compounds, it no longer uses up the hydrogen and CO2 from the
feed. This extra hydrogen can then be used as a good source for the probiotic fermenting bacteria in the rumen, improving diges- tion and boosting efficiency. There is a very interesting study that was done in Australia where cattle fed high-quality seaweed at a very low inclusion rate reduced as much as 98 percent of the methane production in young calves.
Will the increased animal efficiency offset the high cost of the seaweed? Leo Wezelius: “It’s just a matter of time before we get the produc- tion costs down to a point where the increase in animal efficiency in itself is enough to outweigh the cost of using this solution on the farm. Until we reach that point, the end consumer will finance the cost of the seaweed by paying a small sustainability premium for the methane reduction.”
Do you think customers are willing to pay more for meat or milk produced with your product? Leo Wezelius: “Yes. There’s an overall trend that consumers, espe- cially in the Nordic markets, are becoming more and more willing to pay a premium for sustainable products. There’s a sense of ur- gency and a clear awareness of the environmental challenges. For many people the lack of concrete solutions to tackle global
warming creates a feeling of hopelessness. By giving consumers the option to pay a small premium on their beef and dairy prod- ucts, enabling them to actively contribute to getting this solution out to cows at scale and supporting farmers, I’m certain that peo- ple are willing to pay a premium. It’s just a question of communi- cating it in the right way, and we have a world-class team and agency backing us to meet this challenge.”
Another challenge you mentioned is to produce the sea- weed at scale in a cost-effective way; what progress have you made so far? Leo Wezelius: “This autumn we will validate the business model, optimise the core production systems and expand the research through animal trials on Swedish cows together with the Swedish agricultural university SLU. At the beginning of next year we will start selling consumer-facing products with reduced methane emissions together with one of Sweden’s largest retail companies and will then be ready to scale up production. The fun thing about seaweed is that it grows exponentially. One year ago we started with a tiny piece of seaweed on a petri dish, and now we are cultivating it in 15,000-litre tanks. It’s a step-by-step process and we’re moving closer to our goal of getting this method out to all of the world’s cows every minute.”
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