Norwegian online paper, Sysla, drawing from Norwegian newspaper, Bergens Tidende, reported some interesting aspects of a tangible aquaculture advantage in Denmark’s Faroe Islands.
Bigger, healthier more long-lived than their Norwegian counterparts, Faroese salmon have made market inroads this week.
There they were in today’s Marine Harvest report, where they’re normally grouped with Irish production. They show up again in analyst coverage of the company.
Salmon might seem a Norwegian trademark, but new numbers show salmon from the Faroe Islands are, apparently, “on top”.
Healthy fish
“I love it when we beat the Norwegians. You have no idea,” Norwegian online paper, Sysla, quoted a laughing Faroese Minister of Trade, Poul Michelsen, as saying. Like SalmonBusiness on Tuesday, Michelsen was looking at numbers from Kontali Analyse, a well-known analytics bureau in seafood.
Harvested salmon that’s a kilogram heavier; a sector growing faster than Norway’s; higher achieved prices per-kilogram over their Norwegian equivalents — the numbers went on and included a mortality rate of 10 percent, or half the mortality rate said to exist in Norway.
Importantly, for many, local salmon champion, Bakkafrost, spent EUR 0.16 per produced kilogram of fish in the Faroe Islands but spent between EUR 0.40 and EUR 0.50 kroner in Norway. The numbers again come from Kontali.
Salmon lords
Nordea Markets, the article points out, has called Bakkafrost “the world’s best fish-farmer”. The company produces three-quarters of all salmon in the archipelago.
Iceland itself, however, hasn’t always been “the best”, and lean years of poor growth and disease preceded rules changes. The new regime spread companies out: “each fish-farmer was given his own fjord”.
The resulting spread made for healthier fish and easier operations, as the country’s 100,000 harvested tonnes of fish could be managed without consulting neighbors and rivals.
