Norway will deliberate introducing a tax on fish farmers because of their use of the country’s national resources, said the country’s finance ministry.
“The government will ... study and possibly recommend a tax on the use of natural resources to be introduced in 2020,” the finance ministry said in a statement, which was reported by Reuters. “Such a tax is under consideration without a detailed plan yet ready.”
Fish farming is Norway’s second-largest export industry after oil and gas production, with sales of NOK 63.7 billion (USD 7.9 billion, EUR 6.6 billion) in 2016, according to Statistics Norway.
The Financial Times reported that share prices of some of the country’s leading salmonid producers fell following the announcement, with SalMar, Grieg Seafood, Leroy and Marine Harvest down 8.8 percent, 6.3 percent, 5 percent and 4.3 percent respectively.
Meanwhile, the volume of salmon in cages at Norwegian fish farms, as measured by weight, rose by 4 percent year-on-year in March. The salmon biomass was estimated at 654,000 metric tons (MT) of salmon, which was down from 697,000 MT in February.
