Grieg pioneer dies aged 91

Per Grieg (pictured), the former head of the Grieg Group, which includes the Grieg fish farming business, has died just short of his 92nd birthday.

He was not only one of Norway’s great business personalities, but also a major supporter of good causes at home and overseas.

Grieg Seafood today is one of Norway’s leading salmon farming companies with activities in his home country and in British Columbia and Newfoundland, Canada. It sold its Scottish business to Scottish Sea farms around two years ago. It plans to produce 125,000 tonnes of seafood by 2025.

Per Grieg lived in Bergen most of his life, trained as a civil engineer and joined the business as a ship’s broker in 1961 and gradually became a leading figure in a business which now has several hundred employees.

He played a leading role in developing the company into the Grieg Group, which grew into a billion-dollar business within shipbroking, shipping, logistics and fish farming.

Grieg Group said at the weekend: “Per senior was a was a socially engaged philanthropist who has left a deep mark.”

He established the Grieg Foundation in 2002, and ran the work until 2020. The Foundation has distributed over a billion kroner to good causes and projects nationally and internationally.

He was also an important contributor to the cultural city of Bergen, the Grieg art collection and SOS Children’s Villages.

He has been described as a warm and wise man who left a deep impression on those who met him.