In 2019, Sørvágur, Faroe Islands-based aquaculture firm Hiddenfjord began brainstorming an idea to reduce the carbon emissions present in its supply chain.
Although salmon farming as a whole has relatively low carbon emissions compared to other protein production, Hiddenfjord CEO Atli Gregersen thought more could be done to ensure his firm’s product was as environmentally responsible as possible.
"Before you send the salmon to market, it's a relatively good protein carbon-wise. It's about the same as chicken but much better than red meat," Gregersen said. "But, when you fly it to market, it goes up.”
After calculating the carbon emissions of the air freight it uses, the firm decided it would stop flying its products to market by the end of 2020 by launching the "Fish Don't Fly" campaign. As of 21 March, the company had not flown any of its products to market in 1,621 days.
Almost five years later, Gregersen said that Hiddenfjord’s market position has only improved, but he has been dismayed that no competitors have followed suit.
"Since we started, the amount of salmon flown to market has exploded," he said. "We have invited our competitors to copy us."
The Fish Don’t Fly campaign was a gamble for a lot of reasons, Gregersen said. Even though Hiddenfjord had customers in the U.S. who trusted them and were willing to give the new project a chance, he knew they had to deliver a good product...
