Arctic Fish granted licence renewal for two sites

The Icelandic Food Agency, MAST, has renewed the operating licence of Arctic Sea Farm, a subsidiary of Arctic Fish, at two key sites. The decision allows for up to 7,800 tonnes of salmon. 

The sites are at Patreksfjord and Tálknafjörður in the Westfjords region of the country.

Arctic Fish, which is majority owned by Mowi, is one of Iceland’s largest salmon farming companies with total licences for up to 29,800 tonnes.

There was some opposition to the plan and MAST has said that individuals and organisations can appeal its decision to the Environmental and Natural Resources Appeals Committee, and the appeal deadline is one month from the publication of the notice going out.

Arctic Fish had a difficult year operationally in 2023 following a large escape into Patreksfjörður which led to MAST requesting an official inquiry.

Local police were called in to investigate the incident but later decided to take no further action.

The company later apologised for the incident, stating it had been working day and night to establish what happened.

Despite the escape problems Arctic Fish enjoyed a fairly good year financially, producing an operational EBIT of £2.7m. The company said the financial and biological performance improved somewhat after a very challenging third quarter when the escapes took place.

The fourth quarter harvest volume was 2,529 tonnes gutted weight in the fourth quarter, exceeding the guidance volumes, which the company said was mainly due to good production.

Harvest volumes for the full year of 11,878 tonnes reached an all-time high for Arctic Fish. The company also opened a new slaughterhouse last year.