SalmoTerra is the latest company to announce plans for a land-based salmon farming facility in Norway. Phase one construction of the company’s first fish farm will start in early 2022, at Øygarden, near Bergen.
Danish aquaculture technology supplier Graintec will supply the recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) technology.
“SalmoTerra marks an important milestone for Graintec as this is our first fish-farm project. Having supplied salmon feed plants and feeding solutions for more than two decades, we have a long track-record in delivering complex projects to the salmon industry,” Graintec CEO Michael Mortensen said in a press release. "We have invested heavily in building up RAS competencies and have developed a unique RAS concept that will allow SalmoTerra to realize their vision of farming sustainable salmon of the highest quality, without polluting the sea."
Phase one of the project is expected to come into production in the first half of 2023 and will have the capacity to produce 2,700 metric tons (MT) of salmon annually. A second phase is planned to take total production capacity up to 8,000 MT, which will make it one of the largest land-based grow-out facilities in Norway.
“Our vision is to create optimal conditions for the well-being of the fish in our visionary RAS plant. We wanted a supplier to partner up with, and a partner with shared values and visions. Graintec understood our expectations and supported us in creating peace of mind for our investors for this great project in Bergen,” SalmoTerra Managing Director Harald Schreiner Fiksdal said.
SalmoTerra CFO Kai Andre Staeger-Holst told SeafoodSource the company has already secured a smolt supply and is looking to supply the wider European market with its production.
Staeger-Holst and Fiksdal both have a background in the offshore drilling industry and Fiskdal also worked for the former Norwegian aquaculture company Hydro Seafood. SalmoTerra’s board includes Roger Maroy, who brings aquaculture experience from his time with Seaborn and Cermaq Group subsidiary Mainstream.
Photo courtesy of SalmoTerra
