Iceland salmon gets new retail brand

Iceland has launched its own retail salmon brand – at least among three fish farming companies.

ASC certified fish is now being sold under the combined name of Iceborn, launched this week by the Norwegian sales company Seaborn. The businesses who have signed up are Laxar Aquaculture, Fiskeldi Austfjörður (Ice Fish Farm), and Arctic Fish, all large scale producers of salmon in Iceland.

Kjersti Haugen, Seaborn\’s operations manager, told the newspaper Morgunbladid that for a number of years Seaborn had worked with producing businesses on the east coast, but now it had added west coast breeders and this had provided more volume.

She said that by increasing the quantity of salmon available from a wider area it was now possible for Iceborn to ensure year round delivery which was required to market a product under a single brand:

\’This is a way to increase consumer knowledge of Icelandic salmon and its excellence\’.

She also said that Icelandic fish had an excellent reputation for quality, particularly in the United States, one of its key overseas markets.

Seaborn has been operating in Norway since 2001, and is owned by ten smaller family owned Norwegian aquaculture companies. It now a major distributor of salmon and trout to more than 60 countries around the world, mainly in Europe, the United States and Asia.

Seaborn says:

\’Our owners represent the whole value chain from broodstock and roe, via hatching, fry and smolt to marine growers of the highest quality. Satisfied customers are the key to Seaborn’s ability to compete in a tough market.\’