Portuguese grocery giant increases stake in Norwegian salmon breeder

The giant Portuguese supermarket and food group Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar, S.A has purchased two million shares in the Norwegian land based salmon company Andfjord Salmon for an estimated NOK 60 million (£4.3m).

An Oslo Stock Exchange announcement said yesterday the shares were bought from Andfjord Holdings AS at a price of NOK 30 each.

Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar, S.A. (JMA) is a company closely associated with Antonio Serrano, who has been a member of Andfjord’s board of directors since 2022 and is also CEO of  JMA. He is a former Portuguese Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Andfjord Holding is a company associated with founder and board member Roy Bernt Pettersen, who said he was happy at the purchase as JMA had played a key role at board level in Andfjord’s success.

The deal makes up a little under three per cent of the outstanding shares in Andfjord Salmon, but it is does reflect gradual but increasing overseas interest of Norwegian salmon businesses.

Located on the island of Andøya in the Arctic archipelago of Vesterålen, Norway, Andfjord Salmon has developed an innovative aquaculture system for the shore-based farming of Atlantic salmon, based on its patented flow-through technology.

Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar (JMA) was created in 2014 to safeguard the ability of Portuguese food retail companies to supply themselves directly with strategic products, ensuring food security and availability. It operates several hundred food stores in Portugal, Poland and in Colombia, South America

JMA operates in four principal business areas –  dairy, agriculture, aquaculture, and fruits and vegetables.

In aquaculture JMA started to produce sea bass in Sines through Seaculture in 2016, followed later by the production of sea bream in Madeira in partnership with a local company.

In 2021, Seaculture was granted licences to build from scratch offshore aquaculture units in the Algarve to produce sea bream and sea bass.