Mowi has promoted Catherine McManus to become its new director of farming for its operations in Ireland.
Most recently Mowi’s technical manager for its Ireland operations, McManus has worked at Mowi for more than 30 years.
“Catherine brings a wealth of experience, organisational knowledge and an incredibly strong track record to this position and will now take on complete management oversight of the company’s Ireland farming operations, continuing to strengthen Mowi Ireland’s first-rate reputation and premium position in the organic salmon category,” Mowi said in a press release.
Mowi Ireland operates salmon farms in five counties on the west coast of Ireland – from Donegal in the north to Cork and Kerry in the southwest of the country. It produces organic salmon under the brand name The Irish Organic Salmon Co, currently accounting for around 7,000 metric tons (MT) of Atlantic salmon annually. In December 2021, Mowi Ireland Managing Director Jan Feenstra announced his intention to retire from the company on 1 July, 2022.
Mowi Ireland contributes more than EUR 20 million (USD 18.4 million) to the domestic economy annually, with connections to around 525 Irish suppliers, according to the company.
“I’m proud, delighted, and honored to take over at the helm of Mowi Ireland at a very exciting time for the Irish aquaculture sector and a point of huge ambition for the finfish industry. I look forward to building on the unwavering commitment and vision of my predecessor, Jan Feenstra, and harnessing the opportunity which is set out clearly by government strategy,” McManus said. “The debate and focus around food security has heightened significantly of late and we believe that Mowi has a very important role to play in producing sustainable and high-quality protein from our oceans.”
Mowi Ireland’s application for an 18-cage site in Bantry Bay was approved by the country’s Aquaculture Licenses Appeals Board in 2021, but the approval is currently the subject of a judicial review and faces objections from non-governmental organizations.
Ireland’s aquaculture licensing system was upended by a 2007 ruling from the European Union Court of Justice that found that Ireland had failed to apply the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive (also known as Natura 2000) in coastal areas of conservation – home to 80 percent of Irish marine aquaculture sites – when handing out aquaculture licenses. The ruling forced Irish authorities to go through a program of assessments of the sites. In the meantime, nearly two dozen salmon farms in Ireland have been operating with expired licenses, including 12 operated by Mowi, according to Ireland’s Journal.
Photo courtesy of Mowi
