Posts by Vince McDonagh
SalMar launches NOK 500m ‘Salmon Living Lab’
Aquaculture group SalMar has launched an ambitious innovation and research initiative, aimed at bringing different players in the salmon industry together for collaboration. SalMar is calling on industry leaders and others involved with salmon to come together in what it calls “Salmon Living Lab”, to share and learn. Cargill, the global food corporation, is the…
Read MoreSafe to eat
The latest round of testing shows that Norway’s farmed fish are still safe for consumers, as Vince McDonagh reports Farmed fish is free of illegal substances and safe to eat, research by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research has found. The organisation carried out the work, which mostly took place in 2022, on behalf of…
Read MoreCanadian seafood giant invests in cod farmer
High Liner Foods, one of North America’s leading seafood companies, has bought a stake in the Norwegian cod farmer, Norcod. The move is an interesting one, because the big Canadian company has not previously been directly involved with aquaculture. High Liner is mainly a marketer and a processor of value-added frozen seafood, with several retail…
Read MoreNova Sea signs £50m slaughterhouse contract
Norwegian salmon farmer Nova Sea has signed a £50m (NOK 673m) contract to build a new slaughterhouse in Nordland. The deal with the construction company Consto will see an ultra-modern facility on the small island of Lovund. It is in the area where Nova Sea began its fish farming operations in the 1970s. The new…
Read MoreCooke Seafood mourns co-founder
Gifford Cooke, the Canadian marine mechanic who created one of the world’s largest seafood businesses, has died. He was co-founder of the Cooke Seafood group, which turned a local New Brunswick company into a global operation and transformed a single Canadian fish farm into an aquaculture operation employing thousands of people. The Cooke empire stretches…
Read MoreBakkafrost air service takes off this week
Bakkafrost’s new air cargo service, FarCargo is due to begin operations this week. FarCargo was set up as an associated company by Faroese salmon farmer Bakkafrost to ensure a more direct route for its exports, especially to the United States. The proposed outbound route will go from Billund in Denmark, then onto the Faroe Islands…
Read MoreNorway February salmon exports value up, but volume down
Norway’s seafood export boom continues but there are signs things could be slowing down, according to the latest figures. The export value total last month was NOK 13.3bn (just short of £1bn), a rise of 3% on a year ago. The Norwegian Seafood Council said that thanks to large value growth for salmon, trout, cod…
Read MoreExpansion go-ahead for two Icelandic salmon companies
TWO major Icelandic salmon farming companies have been granted licences to produce an extra 18,000 tonnes of fish. MAST, Iceland’s veterinary authority, has given Arnarlax the go-ahead to farm an additional 10,000 tonnes of sterile salmon in the Isafjord area, in the north-west of the country. It has also awarded Arctic Sea Farm a new…
Read MoreMinisters praise Norway-UK partnership
Fisheries ministers from Norway and the UK have stressed the mutual importance of the seafood trading relationship between the two countries – but trade body Salmon Scotland has said the playing field needs to be more level. Cecilie Myrseth, Norway’s Fisheries and Oceans Minister, and Mark Spencer, UK Fisheries Minister (pictured), were speaking at last…
Read MoreSalmon prices on the rise again
Salmon prices in Norway appear to be on the rise again after a period of relative stability. Last week (week 8) figures from Statistics Norway, which monitors prices on a weekly basis, fresh salmon reached NOK 111.25 per kilo (£8.31), the second highest level so far this year and an increase of 3.2% on the…
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