Nordic Aquafarms celebrated the completion of the company’s U.S. headquarters, located in Portland, Maine, with a ribbon-cutting on 17 December.
Nordic has plans for two large land-based salmon recirculating aquaculture system facilities in the U.S – one in Belfast, Maine and one in Humboldt County, California. While those facilities are still in the works, the company has finished work on its headquarters in Portland, which the company first picked back in 2018.
The ribbon-cutting was performed by Portland’s new mayor, Kate Snyder, who won election in November. She said Nordic’s decision to have their corporate staff headquartered in Portland was a positive for both the city and the state.
“Any time an international company chooses Portland as its headquarters, that’s exciting,” she told SeafoodSource.
Nordic Aquafarms President Erik Heim said the city was an easy choice for the company’s headquarters.
“Portland was a natural hub for NAF in the U.S. due to [its] proximity to engineering firms, financial institutions, and other seafood operations,” Heim told SeafoodSource. “In addition, ease of travel from Norway and also to California were considerations, as well as ease of access to Boston as a major seafood hub. Portland is also a nice and convenient city with little traffic, and thus easy to work from.”
Much like at the company’s other locations, Heim said the company aims to become a part of the wider community.
“We work to become a long-term contributing member in all the communities we are involved in, be it Norway, Denmark, Portland, Belfast or Humboldt, California,” Heim said. “We invest in extensive dialogue and information sharing as a part of this process, as well as open-door policy so people in the communities can talk to us if they have questions, input, or other feedback.
He added that Portland will be the corporate headquarters for the company.
“Portland houses U.S. corporate staff – finance, commercial, admin, IT, and ESG audits,” Heim said. “Field offices in Belfast and Humboldt typically house all local engineering, admin, and operations staff.”
Photo by Chris Chase/SeafoodSource
