Lice treatment helps Benchmark double profits

Aquaculture biotech company Benchmark has reported revenue up by a third and doubled its adjusted profits for the first half of the current financial year. In its interim report, Benchmark’s revenues were up 33% to £79.2m and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before tax, interest, depreciation and amortisation was £15.9m (H1 financial year 2021: £7.9m). Adjusted EBITDA…

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Arnarlax plans 80,000 tonne processing plant in Iceland

Icelandic fish farming company Arnarlax has announced plans to build a new hi-tech salmon processing factory in the country’s Westfjords region. The plant will be one of the largest in Iceland, eventually able to process up to 80,000 tonnes a year. A start date has yet to be agreed, but the company, has signed a…

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Salmon producers fear ‘trade war’ escalation

Scotland’s salmon producers have expressed their concerns that the UK Government appears to be heading for a trade war with the European Union. Trade body Salmon Scotland has today written to the Prime Minister following a House of Commons statement from Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. She had outlined plans to introduce new legislation to amend,…

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SPAROS and PTAqua join forces to offer fish hatcheries custom-made nutrition

More fish hatcheries will now have easy access to tailored feeds by SPAROS, through the well-established distribution platform provided by Pacific Trading Aquaculture Ltd (PTAqua). The bespoke feed products will be of great benefit to hatcheries focusing on larval fish stages of species such as seriola, meagre, seabass, seabream and especially ballan wrasse. SPAROS’s products…

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Salmon price rise hits the buffers

The recent rapid rise in the price of salmon is slowing down, according to the latest figures from Statistics Norway. More up to date market information also suggests that, while prices remain high, a correction has been taking place in the past few days. The latest available figures show that fresh salmon increased only marginally to…

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‘Egg’ closed farm goes on show

The “Egg” or Eggett fish farm has made its first public appearance in Norway, attracting a large number of onlookers. Standing 21 metres tall, the size and unique design of the Egg (also known as the Eggett) brought gasps of admiration. The builders, Herde Kompositt, designed the closed-containment fish farm to eliminate problems such as lice,…

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Stuck in the slow lane

A pilot scheme suggests that digitising export paperwork could save producers time and money. Since the end of the Brexit transition period, increased bureaucracy has added an extra £3m each year to the cost of exporting salmon to the European Union. So says Tavish Scott, Chief Executive of Salmon Scotland, who says progress towards developing…

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Grieg reports strong results in ‘historic’ market

Grieg Seafood CEO Andreas Kvame has said the first three months of 2022 have been “unlike anything” he has seen in his long career in the industry. The quarter has been dominated by soaring salmon prices, but also rapidly rising costs from several directions. The company, which shed its Shetland and Scottish interests at the…

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NRS issues profits warning

Norway Royal Salmon has issued a profits warning ahead of its 2022 first quarter results, due later this month. The company said the problem relates biological challenges, with higher than usual winter wounds at its Norwegian farms, leading to early mass harvesting. In a stock market statement it said: “NRS [Norway Royal Salmon] has during…

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