Arctic char farm wins government support

Many fish swimming in water

A fish farm looks set to be built in the heart of Canada – with official help and approval.

The Manitoba provincial government has promised support for the Sapphire Springs Inc Arctic Char aquaculture and processing facility near RockWood Municipality, north of Winnipeg.

Sapphire Springs, which is just four years old,  says the CA $145m (£80.5m) project will create at least 100 jobs plus 120 indirect jobs and would help boost the local economy.

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Don’t miss our Land Based Strategy webinar

An impressive amount of investment is pouring into land based fish farming around the world, from Scandinavia and the Middle East to Florida and Japan. But can the technology and biology combine to ensure this industry has a profitable future? Next week, in the latest in our Aqua Agenda series of webinars, we’ll be asking:…

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Norwegian anglers face new restrictions

The Norwegian Environment Agency is to limit recreational salmon fishing next year, as fears about wild stocks continue. From next year, the directorate will plan for a more cautious start to salmon fishing, where more locations can be opened up for fishing later if enough salmon arrive in the rivers.

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Salmon industry embroiled in asthma row

A dispute has broken out between Norway’s salmon industry and the national broadcaster NRK over claims that some of its employees are developing asthma through their work.

NRK has highlighted research findings from a study carried out on workers at St Olav’s Hospital in Trondheim

The broadcaster said reports from the hospital showed that a number of people, some of them immigrant workers, were suffering from “salmon asthma”.

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Seaweed producer is a double winner in Food & Drink Awards

The Scottish Seaweed Company was a winner in two categories in the Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards, which were held last night.

Two products in the company’s Shore range of snacks were declared best in class: its Peking Duck Seaweed Chips were named Healthier Choice Product of the Year, while Shore Sweet Sriracha Seaweed Chips won in the Snacks and Accompaniments category.

The overall winner on the night as Scottish Product of the Year was another seafood offering, the Fishwife Pie from Carnoustie-based restaurant and piemaker WeeCOOK

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Hebridean Baker’s latest cookbook features Loch Duart

A best-selling author and cook famous for living “off-grid” has featured Loch Duart salmon in his latest collection of recipes.

Coinneach MacLeod, known as “The Hebridean Baker”, has just published The Scottish Cookbook which features two new recipes using Loch Duart salmon: Ginger Salmon Parcels and Roast Beetroot Salmon.

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Water quality remains a problem at Mt Fuji salmon farm

Proximar Seafood, the Norwegian owned company with a large new salmon farm near Mount Fuji in Japan, has said it is still taking action to counter turbidity in its growth phase.

Turbidity – murky water – has a direct effect on the amount of sunlight available to aquatic plants and high levels of suspended materials can clog fish gills.

It affects fish health, but not the quality of the fish and just over a week ago Proximar announced it had sold the first with 100% superior quality commercial salmon to supermarkets in the greater Tokyo area .

Nevertheless, turbidity continues to cause a few problems. The company said in a trading update this week: “As communicated in the Q2 report in August, Proximar has experienced turbidity issues in the grow out stage.

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Cooke Scotland reports revenue up but profits under pressure

Cooke Scotland saw its sales rise by 17% last year, but any hope of improved profits from that were cancelled out by higher production costs.

These included increased material and labour costs, which were the main challenges in what was an exceptionally inflationary year.

The company said turnover last year totalled £217m, but pointed out that the volumes sold were relatively flat, with the higher revenues mainly due to record salmon prices last year.

While sales were up by 17%, the cost of producing those sales rose by 25% to £165m.

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