Atlantic Sapphire CEO and founder Johan Andreassen believes the coronavirus can be an advantage for the land-based salmon.
“The pandemic will lead to enormous changes in the market and consumer patterns. Here in the United States, we see a big push to focus more on proper nutrition and good health. People note that there is a link between overall health and how sick one becomes from the virus. Seafood consumption in general in the US is significantly up after the coronavirus,” Andreassen told the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.
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Andreassen added that he believes that increasingly more expensive air freight during the pandemic reinforced his argument that being close to the market will produce good earnings.
After eight years of establishing, the land-based project of Atlantic Sapphire in Florida rounded off a milestone in late September when the first salmon were harvested. Now the company is harvesting weekly, with gradually increased volumes, according to Andreassen. But he did not want to comment on the price they were receiving for the salmon.
Atlantic Sapphire has ambitions to harvest 220,000 tonnes of salmon by 2031, which will make it one of the world’s largest Atlantic salmon farmers.
