Pure Salmon, which already has a land-based salmon farm in Poland, will build three more in Europe, Japan and the United States – and that’s just the beginning.
“We are fully aware that this is an ambitious project,” said Martin Fothergill, founder and partner of the global asset management company 8F Asset Management, which has established the operating company Pure Salmon.
SalmonBusiness met Fothergill after a lunch presentation, which was otherwise closed to the press, organized by SpareBank 1 Markets in Oslo.
“That is why we have put in place infrastructure and brought in an experienced team to oversee the building of each facility and the building of multiple facilities at the same time. There is a global team overseeing everything, and local teams to move from project to project,” Fothergill explained.
In Poland, a plant is already up and running but only produces 450 tonnes a year. Primarily, this facility is used for research and development, training of employees, as well as a place where potential investors and customers can gain an insight into the production. While the Japanese and European plants will produce 10,000 tonnes annually, the plant in the US will produce 20,000 – a total of 40,000 tonnes annually.
But the company is aiming big, namely 260,000 tonnes in total annual salmon production. Among other things, several plants are planned in China, and one in Lesotho, of which SalmonBusiness was the first to report on.
For each of the plants to be fully built and reaching full capacity, how much investment does the project need?
“To reach the goal of 260.000 tonnes annually is approximately 1.6 billion dollars of equity. For this first phase, which is Poland, Japan, Europe and the USA, its 300 million dollars of equity. We have raised a substantial amount of that money, but not all of it,” Fothergill concluded.
