Faroe Islands-headquartered salmon-farming firm Bakkafrost is investing in perfecting, and then expanding, its production of roe to become self-sufficient in its operations.
The company is currently producing around 20 million roe annually, but is eyeing production of at least 50 million in the near future, Bakkafrost CEO Regin Jacobsen told SeafoodSource.
"We are investing in making ‘elite roe’ – roe that has a perfect immune system against all kinds of disease. We have found the correct markers in the DNA of our roe and are now working toward proving our findings," Jacobsen said.
One of the reasons why the firm is keen on expanding roe production is that it wants to enhance its branding by producing salmon that is 100 percent Faroese in the Faroe Islands and, likewise, completely Scottish in Scotland, with the DNA research to back those claims up.
“Our salmon has to be truly Faroese and truly from the Hebrides,” Jacobsen said. “In Scotland, we have an original breed from the Hebrides [archipelago] that produces roe there. We are expanding our production there, as well. The goal is that Bakkafrost is totally self-sustaining with roe in all of our production. But, we have to constantly observe how robust the roe we are producing are, how they survive disease, and how they flourish.”
To ensure the DNA is right before committing to expansion, Bakkafrost has been researching the roe its fish have been producing at two Faroese facilities it has been leasing for the past six years, according to Faroes media outlet Kringvarp Føroyas.
The firm has plans to buy the two sites and then upgrade them so they have the capacity to produce roe on the ambitious scale Bakkafrost is envisioning.
However, Bakkafrost said it still has to determine how to eliminate waste in its roe production …
