“I don’t mean that it’s good for the world, but as an Atlantic Sapphire shareholder you can potentially revel in the fact that this situation will escalate.”
This was Atlantic Sapphire CEO Johan Andreassen’s comment in an interview with Norwegian news publication Dagens Næringsliv, after the United States announced yesterday it will be introducing a new giant tariff on China. The new tariff, which includes Chinese seafood, will be enforced in September.
Andreassen heads Atlantic Sapphire’s major investment in land-based fish farming in Florida. The objective is to produce and process 90,000 tonnes of farmed salmon by 2026. However, the first section of the complex will be have already been completed as early as 2020, and be capable of producing and processing 10,000 salmon annually.
“We will primarily produce our salmon within U.S. borders, so from our point of view as a group, this is not a negative for us. It can on the contrary be a positive,” he said about the trade war between the superpowers. He believes it will have a domino effect with more tariffs being levied, and have an impact on more countries.
Meanwhile, Andreassen and Atlantic Sapphire have also felt the effects of the trade war. Materials and technology for the new land-based complex in Florida have become dearer.
“We’ve seen that’s where our greatest risk lies. Our costs are under pressure because the price of steel is going up,” he said.
