Losna Seafood has been granted a license to farm salmon, now finding cash is the last obstacle.
“We have received a license,” said entrepreneur Geir Nordahl Pedersen, excitedly to SalmonBusiness.
“For 28,600 tonnes. For a 100 per cent flow-through system. Meaning, we have no reuse of water,” he explained.
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The location is Losna, an island with four permanent residents, 500 wild sheep and 120 deer, in the municipality of Solund, Western Norway. The oil millionaire’s company Losna Seafood plans to farm salmon in large mountain pools.
And then there was the million-dollar question: Do you have funding for this?
“We’re working on that. We have not been able to finance anything without a license. It almost goes without saying. We have until now financed all costs 100 per cent ourselves.”
“The only thing we have done hand-in-hand is that we have ordered an archaeologist since there were some areas with proven cultural monuments. If they find something there, they remove it and then they open the area,” he explained.
Nordahl Pedersen has a parallel and quite a comparable project going on in Averøy, just outside Kristiansund, Central Norway.
“We have applied for a treatment licence, but are still waiting for a reply. It is a slightly longer process than we anticipated.”
The activity at Losna has now gone much further, than the project at Averøy.
“Yes, it is further ahead. We have had a very good collaboration with guiding scientists. We have developed pumps and cages together with suppliers. We build in plastic so it can last for a long time,” he said, and added: “Those who have been cooperating with us can handle that we brag a bit.”
“So now you are going on a roadshow to raise money?”
“We have a dialogue. To put it this way: We have not gone this far without thinking it would be possible to realize,” said Nordahl Pedersen.
