Interest in land-based salmon farming is growing in Scandinavia, with Gaia Salmon and Eco Seafood both planning new recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facilities in Central Norway, Baring AS planning a second farm in South Norway, and Ljungdahls Fast applying for permission to build a salmon farm at Strömstad, Sweden – close to the Norwegian border.
Norway is already the world’s largest producer of at-sea salmon, and is now set to lead the pack with land-based production. Most land-based farms are still in the planning or early development phase, but several land-based salmon companies are already listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, including Andfjord Salmon and Salmon Evolution.
Gaia Salmon already has permission to grow 7,200 metric tons (MT) of salmon at Træna, and its latest application is for up to 15,000 MT on industrial land at Kråkøya, north of Rørvik.
Newly-founded Eco Seafood hopes to build its land-based unit in the same area, and has applied for a licence with a suggested annual production of 40,000 MT. Both companies are currently exploring funding options.
Baring is getting ready to build a 24,000 MT RAS facility in Farsund, and has also submitted plans for a 10,000 MT unit at Grimstad.
The company has engaged Billund Aquaculture Norway as its RAS supplier for the first stage of construction at Farsund. According to Baring Managing Director Ole Kristoffer Torsvik, the first unit will be for the post-smolt stage, and will be the first of its kind in southern Norway to use the latest RAS technology and re-use up to 99 percent of the water.
“We want to develop this project step by step. Therefore, we will start with post-smolt before we develop the project further. Such production assumes that we put seawater-facing smolt into the plant to raise to a post-smolt of about one kilogram for sale,” Torsvik said in a press release.
The aim is to perfect production techniques before adding smolt and ongrowing units, which would enable salmon to be grown from fingerlings to around five kilograms in weight.
Ljungdahls Fast is applying for a licence to produce 10,000 MT of salmon, on land just two kilometres from the Norwegian border. The development will be incremental, with an initial target output of 1,500 MT.
“Our goal is to create locally produced and sustainable marine food with high environmental credentials, while meeting national strategies for aquaculture and food,” the company stated in its planning application.
If all currently planned projects come to fruition, land-based production in Norway could top 700,000 MT of salmon in the next few years.
Photo courtesy of Baring Farsund/Multiconsult
