Finefish has formed a marketing partnership with Norwegian brown trout farmer Sirdals Ørret and Arctic char farmer Telemarkrøye.
The Fosnavåg, Norway-based vertically integrated company, which operates two fishing vessels and a processing facility, will use its marketing and sales team to sell the premium-quality farmed products from both aquaculture operations and its logistics team to get their fish to market, according to Finefish Co-Owner Gjermund Bringsvor.
“We already have fresh distribution all over Europe, so it's pretty nice for them to hitchhike,” Bringsvor told SeafoodSource. “We have a big logistics operation and we think it’s good for both us and them that we can cooperate to build volume.”
At first blush, it seems unusual that a company specializing in wild-caught, non-pelagic fish would team up with two artisanal aquaculture companies, but Bringsvor said his company’s iconoclastic approach made the partnerships a natural fit. On its website, the company describes itself as “daring to be a little different,” with a “straightforward and non-bureaucratic manner.”
“Our company culture pushes us to search out something new and different, that takes a lot of hard work. Maybe we are a little bit masochistic,” Bringsvor said.
Bringsvor said Finefish just has one rule – no salmon.
“We are an atypical Norwegian seafood company, wanting to work outside the dominance of salmon. And salmon sales are being handled by fewer and fewer companies – independent firms don’t have a very good chance to survive because they don’t have the control over the raw material,” Bringsvor said. “These partnerships worked because we are always looking for new products, with less volume but very high in quality. That is our specialty.”
Bringsvor said his company’s experience in handling complicated logistics issues is a major asset to smaller aquaculture operators, allowing the leadership at those firms to focus on farming.
“We are starting to get pretty old, so we have a wide knowledge how to solve problems. That’s actually a big part of what we do for our partners. We know how to fix a problem for the guy behind us in the supply chain or for the guy in front of us.”
Sirdals Ørret CEO Runar Blakstad said his firm is banking on Finefish’s expertise through its commercial sales launch at the 2023 Seafood Expo Global, taking place 25 to 27 April in Barcelona, Spain.
“They have allowed us to focus on production, and now we are happy with the product and we want to show it to the to the world,” he said. “But it is key for us that this product gets good marketing, because we have to distinguish it from Turkish or Danish trout, because it is a much more high-end product.”
Focusbygget, Norway-based Sirdals Ørret is targeting 500 metric tons of production for 2023, with a plan to scale up volumes in coming years. Blakstad said he’s sent out samples and done market testing and has received rave reviews, with customers praising both the color and taste of the fish, and also lauding the company’s Aquaculture Stewardship Council certification and its refusal to use antibiotics and its use of solar and hydro power for much of its energy consumption.
“We farm in cold, clean mountain waters in south-central Norway. We have the philosophy that no one has a bigger interest in maintaining a good environment than us, because if we don’t have good conditions to grow in, we won’t have a future,” Blakstad said. “Our fish inside the cages are the same as those outside the cages. We just put them into the cages because it’s easier that way for us to feed them and harvest them. The quality is the first importance for us, because that is our entire story.”
Telemarkrøye, based in Fyresdal, Norway, was founded in 2014 and farms Arctic char from wild roe grown for nine months in a land-based facility before being released into cages in Fyresvatn Lake in southern Norway. There, they are raised for an additional 16 months before being slaughtered at a size of no less than 1.2 kilograms. For 2023, Telemarkrøye is targeting 600 MT of production.
Finefish CEO Ole Sande said the quality of Telemarkrøye’s char is its selling point.
“With the lake-grown char, you can immediately taste the difference compared to ocean-grown char,” he said. “We find the most-effective marketing is to get someone to buy a box of it, because the best ambassador for the company is the fish itself.”
Telemarkrøye currently sells most of its product into Sweden and Finland, but Sande said those markets are tapped out and he hopes to expand distribution to continental Europe, and perhaps the United States and the Middle East.
“Since they are growing production, we need to grow the customer base. But it's a product that we absolutely think can compete with the other red fish coming out from Norway and Arctic char from Iceland,” he said. “In the new markets, we need to demonstrate how our product is not the same as salmon or other Arctic char, because it is a premium product with a premium price. We are targeting the high-end market for restaurants – it is a niche product and will never be big-volume. Our goal is try to find the best-paying niches.”
The current high salmon prices are good news for Finefish and its partners, because it means customers are getting accustomed to paying more for their fish, Sande said. But they can’t go too high, because “people will just stop buying,” Sande said.
“We need to find the right level to where we should be, but if we can keep the current salmon prices, we are happy,” he said.
Blakstad agreed, saying he is aiming to sell his trout for EUR 10 (USD 11) per kilo.
“The price is not the main issue for our buyers. We need to show that we are reliable and that we can delivery consistently good product,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Cliff White/SeafoodSource
