On Friday, the Norwegian Fisheries Ministry will announce which salmon-farming applications for increased biomass allowances have won out, SalmonBusiness learned on a visit to the Ministry.
The price of 120,000 kroner (EUR 12,531) per tonne of expanded maximum allowable biomass was hotly debated, when the Fisheries Ministry first aired its plan for growth in the aquaculture industry late in 2017.
Companies along the coast were offered two percent growth at the price of 120,000 kroner per tonne. But on Wednesday, January 31st, the deadline to apply and accept that offer ran out.
Marine Harvest and Cermaq quickly sent out communiques saying they had applied for the growth allowance. Then, Troms County announced that 15 of its 16 salmon-farming companies, including SalMar and Leroy, had paid-in for the growth.
Grieg Seafood managing director, Adreas Kvame, and his counterpart Trond Williksen of SalMar confirmed for SalmonBusiness that they had invested in the extra biomass allowance.
“We have applied for two percent growth in (the northernmost Norwegian county of) Finnmark,” Kvame said, adding, “We’ve given it a good going-over, internally, and we arrived at the decision that we wish to grow where we can.”
Williksen didn’t want to comment on the decision: “I can confirm that we have applied for two percent growth. Other than that, I have no comment.”
