Benchmark Genetics Norway AS has signed a five-year agreement with Ecofisk to supply salmon eggs to its new land-based salmon farming facility, to be constructed in Espevik, in Norway’s Tysvær municipality.
The new delivery agreement, which will start in the first quarter of 2023, will amount to more than 25 million Atlantic salmon eggs annually when the project is fully developed.
Benchmark Genetics will also contribute technical expertise in the project phase and when the smolt and grow-out facility comes into operation.
Ecofisk General Manager Bjørn Inge Staalesen said the company will have the largest integrated land-based fish farm in Norway when it is completed, and that the facility will produce salmon with a very low environmental footprint.
“We have signed a genetics agreement at an early stage because we are concerned about biosafety and want to secure one of the most important input factors for the facility,” Staalesen said. “Benchmark’s delivery ability on off-season eggs has also been an essential factor in choosing them as our partner.”
According to Benchmark Genetics Commercial Director Geir Olav Melingen, Ecofisk’s new facility will provide flexibility, with both post-smolt and full-cycle land-based production.
“We thought this was exciting, as it will also challenge genetics since parts of the production will be farmed in cages at sea in the last phase, while the other part of the production will be kept on land throughout the life phase,” Melingen said. “As a genetics provider, we must ensure that the eggs we deliver have the best genetic traits adapted to the different environments in which they grow.”
Melingen has previously collaborated with Ecofisk COO Rustan Lindqvist in connection with a land-based facility for salmon in Ürümqi, China.
“Now our paths cross again, and this time in a completely different RAS project in terms of geographical location, size, and environmental footprint,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Benchmark Genetics
