The production facility is expected to produce around 3,000 tons of salmon a year, a figure that represents 5 per cent of the total consumed in Spain.
On Thursday, regional president, Miguel Ángel Revilla, inaugurated the first phase of a new 25,000 square meter salmon production facility in Cantabria, the first in Spain. The farm is expected to create around fifty new jobs in the region, a development the president described as, “Great news for Cantabria.”
The RAS farm is the result of an investment by Mexican-owned Norcantabric of €32 million in two phases and the support of the Government of Cantabria.
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According to a press release from Norcantabric, initially the company is set to produce between 120 and 250 tons, but at full capacity, the production facility is expected to produce around 3,000 tons of salmon a year, a figure that represents 5 per cent of the total consumed in Spain.
The first phase consists of three basic areas for production (incubation, first feeding and nursery), while the second phase, scheduled for next year, will consist of the construction of the fattening plant, where the specimens will reach four or five kilos in weight.
Revilla stressed that it will be a “premium” quality product, thanks to the “plus” provided by the “extraordinary and pure waters” of the Asón, “which has been a salmon river all its life.”
“Why do we have to eat salmon from Norway, the United Kingdom or Ireland when we have better waters and better climate to produce quality salmon?” Revilla asked.
For the Cantabrian chief executive, Emilio Cano, Norcantabric’s success is “guaranteed” given the growing market for salmon, which in Spain alone is worth around €300 million but which until now, has relied on imports.
The first salmon from the plant are expected to be harvested in 22 months time.
