AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS — Corbion nv on Feb. 14 confirmed it is in discussions to potentially acquire Bunge Ltd.’s stake in the SB Renewable Oils joint venture. Corbion is a 50.1% partner, and Bunge is a 49.9% partner. SB Renewable Oils operates a facility in Brazil and produces algae ingredients.

“While the discussions are constructive, it is uncertain if and when they will lead to an agreement,” Amsterdam-based Corbion said.

Corbion completed the acquisition of San Francisco-based TerraVia, a microalgae ingredients company, on Sept. 29, 2017.

Soren W. Schroder, chief executive officer and director of Bunge, Ltd., White Plains, N.Y., spoke about the joint venture with Corbion in a Feb. 14 earnings call.

“It’s an investment we’ve had for a number of years, and we’ve continued to contribute to it,” he said. “The outcome of it so far is different than how we initially expected it to be. Initially, it was focused on developing specialty oils, tropical oils equivalents through algae.

“That turned out to be not necessarily the best path. The cost point was too high, and it developed or evolved into a specialty feed business, which is interesting, and it is making good progress, and it has successes as we described last year in October, but it’s not core to us, and for that reason, we’ve decided that it was better if we could hand this over to our partner at the moment and then focus additional capital spending on our core activities.”

AlgaPrimeDHA, a whole algae aquafeed ingredient produced by SB Renewable Oils, received the 2017 Global Aquaculture Innovation Award from the Global Aquaculture Alliance, which promotes responsible aquaculture practices through education, advocacy and demonstration.