Aker BioMarine, one of the world’s leading krill suppliers, has announced that it has signed a declaration of partnership with its large Chinese customer, Function.
Aker BioMarine has partnered with Function, its largest customer of Superba Krill oil in China. This partnership underscores the parties’ mutual ambition of pursuing a long-term strategic partnership. Through the collaboration, Function aims to drive growth of krill-based products within the Chinese market, where Aker BioMarine has seen significant growth over recent years. The partnership furthermore includes an intention for Function to license the Kori® krill oil brand in China, and to be the first customer of Aker BioMarine’s new protein product Understory®.
Understory® is Aker BioMarine’s new premium protein product and is produced in its newly opened production facility in Ski, Norway. The facility is currently ramping up production, and Function has the intention to purchase a portion of the 2024 output, with an expressed ambition to purchase more as the factory ramps up going forward. This will be Aker BioMarine’s first commercial sale of Understory®.
Kori® is the company’s own omega-3 krill oil brand in the US. To further grow the brand, Aker BioMarine has been looking to expand Kori outside of the US, and as a first step the company reported in its fourth quarter 2024 report that Kori has won distribution with Costco Japan, although relatively small volumes to begin with. As part of this strategic partnership, Function has a stated ambition to license the Kori® brand for sales of krill oil products in the Chinese market in exchange for royalty payments.
“China has over the last years been one of Aker BioMarine’s fastest growing markets. We hope that the meeting yesterday is the start of a long-term partnership of mutual benefit and that Function will deliver on their ambition to drive growth of krill-based products in China,” said Matts Johansen, CEO of Aker BioMarine.
