Clover has seen growing demand for its powdered form of omega-3 oil, especially from the infant nutrition and supplement categories in Asia and its home market.
It currently extracts the fatty acid from South Pacific tuna fish oil but like all businesses reliant on declining fish stocks, it is investigating whether other marine life could provide it with an alternative raw material.
The company is working with researchers at the research institute CSIRO, backed by government funding worth A$1 million, to find out if microalgae could become a renewable source of omega-3 oils.
Germany's Nutrinova and US-based Martek, already supply the omega-3 fatty acid DHA derived from microalgae to the food market but at a significantly higher price than fish oils.
But new chief executive Ian Brown points out that both firms are in the northern hemisphere.
"We're looking at the southern hemisphere oceans, so we want to find out, if you go to a different area, are the strains better in some way or do they offer unique properties? And can we find some that are more productive than those currently exploited to provide better value?"Brown, who took over his post in June, adds that there is still plenty of room for new players to the market.
"I think the omega-3 story is a particularly good one," he told AP-Foodtechnology.com.
The market for foods fortified with omega-3 is seeing strong growth worldwide, thanks to its reported benefits to the heart, brain and bones.
But Brown added: "The potential market for omega-3 hasn't even been realized at this point, and people have only been commercializing the research for less than 20 years."
"There are more and more reasons why it should be included in the diet so we still don't know how large the market will be."
Brown, who was previously at National Starch where he was responsible for the discovery, development and commercialization of the resistant starch Hi-Maize, will be looking to develop new products at Clover as well as set up strategic alliances for the firm around the world.
The firm already has a number of new projects in the pipeline, including a nut replacement technology and a new microencapsulation technology, but Brown declined to reveal progress until the company reports on the past six months to shareholders later this month.
During the first six months of the year, the firm said it expanded its customer base to include a Japanese confectionery business, several bar and cereal customers in New Zealand, and a bread maker and infant nutrition firm in Indonesia.
