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Over 94% of German Drugstore Sector Going Krill-Free as Müller Signs Antarctic Krill Pledge
Tuesday, 08 Sep, 2026
Müller, one of Germany’s three largest drugstore chains, with 964 stores across nine countries, has become the first major drugstore chain in continental Europe to sign the Antarctic Krill Pledge, a voluntary corporate commitment initiated by British retailer Holland & Barrett and developed in collaboration with Sea Shepherd Global.
As a signatory to the Pledge, Müller phased out the krill oil products it sells, committed to not introducing krill products into its range in the future, and agreed to be transparent about that commitment.
Müller is the first of Germany's "big three" drugstore chains to sign the Pledge. Earlier this year, the other two companies, dm-drogerie and Rossmann, confirmed to Sea Shepherd that they would cease selling all krill-based products, but have not yet become Pledge signatories. Sea Shepherd has applauded their decisions to sell through their remaining stock and is encouraging both companies to take the additional step of signing the Antarctic Krill Pledge.
Together, Müller, Rossmann and dm-drogerie markt account for more than 94 percent of drugstore locations in Germany. Their decisions mean that the vast majority of the German drugstore sector is now committed to going krill-free, a dramatic market shift that few in the krill industry could have anticipated at the beginning of the year.
“Two years ago, market projections suggested Germany would dominate the European krill market through at least 2031. At the start of this year, Germany was the single largest market for krill oil supplements, accounting for nearly 10 percent of global demand. That trajectory has now been fundamentally disrupted. Within the span of just a few months, more than 94 percent of Germany's drugstore locations have publicly closed their doors to krill oil products. We’ve reached a tipping point, and we believe that this marks the beginning of a much broader shift across Europe.”
Peter Hammarstedt, Chief Campaigns Officer, Sea Shepherd Global.
Sea Shepherd’s First-Hand Documentation of the Krill Fishery is Helping Turn the Tide
The decisions by Müller followed heightened scrutiny of the Antarctic krill fishery brought about by four consecutive Sea Shepherd expeditions to the Southern Ocean.
During these campaigns, Sea Shepherd repeatedly documented industrial supertrawlers operating among foraging whales inside a proposed marine protected area. Evidence gathered at sea was presented to retailers, including Müller, alongside concerns about weakening regulations governing the rapidly expanding krill fishery.
Krill are a keystone species in the Southern Ocean, converting energy captured by phytoplankton into a food source that sustains whales, penguins, seals and countless other species. Changes in krill abundance can reverberate throughout the Antarctic food web. Scientific evidence suggests that krill densities around the Antarctic Peninsula, where much of the commercial fishery is concentrated, may have declined by as much as 80 percent since the 1970s
Much of the Antarctic krill catch is processed into krill oil for use in omega-3 dietary supplements, despite the widespread availability of alternatives, including omega-3 supplements derived directly from algae. Unlike krill oil, algae-based omega-3 does not require the industrial extraction of wildlife from the Antarctic food web.
The Sea Shepherd vessel Allankay returned from Antarctica earlier this year after facilitating the work of an independent team of scientists studying the overlap between the krill fishery and foraging whales.
At the end of 2024, a key conservation measure requiring krill fishing activity to be distributed across a wider geographic area, designed to reduce the risk of localized depletion, expired after governments failed to agree on its renewal. Without those spatial restrictions, fishing effort can become increasingly concentrated in ecologically important areas, intensifying pressure on wildlife competing for the same krill resource.
Earlier this year, the Antarctic fur seal was classified as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority on extinction risk. Antarctic krill are a critical component of the species’ diet.
“The combination of evidence gathered at sea and sustained advocacy on land is now beginning to shift market forces. With Müller demonstrating pioneering conservation leadership, consumer demand in what was recently the world’s largest market for krill oil supplements is being fundamentally reshaped. This demonstrates the power that retailers have to help protect Antarctica by choosing alternatives that do not depend on extracting wildlife from the Southern Ocean,” said Hammarstedt.
Learn more about Sea Shepherd’s Antarctic Defense Campaign: https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/our-campaigns/antarctica-defense/