The County Council of Møre og Romsdal in western Norway has granted Salfjord authorization, in accordance with Norwegian salmon permit regulations, to cultivate salmon on land in the Tjeldbergodden industrial park in the local authority of Aure in the Nordmøre region. "We've worked purposefully on this for a long time, and are very pleased that the permit is now in place," said Salfjord co-founder and CEO Hans Ramsvik.
As a result, the company will be granted a permit for a maximum standing biomass of 21,000 tons. In other words, the authorized permit allows for the same capacity as having 27 licenses for traditional fish farming in the open sea. It enables an annual production of 36,500 tons of head-on gutted (HOG) salmon, which translates to the ability to serve up to 500,000 salmon meals per day throughout the year. Additionally, the company has highlighted that the permit allows for the production of 30 million smolts annually.
These remarkable numbers demonstrate the project's potential and its ability to adapt to various production plans. "The permit for smolts makes us self-sufficient for these, and gives us great flexibility in relation to our production plans," said Ramsvik.
Ramsvik reports that the goal is to have the first phase ready for production in 2026. By that year, with development complete, it would be capable of generating more than 100 new jobs. In addition, Salfjord anticipates that the completed plant will include a hatchery and departments for initial feeding, fattening, smolts, and post-smolt.
This project has also prompted Salfjord to move to the next phase: strategic investors. Thus, the company is working on raising additional strategic and industrial investors for a new share issue in 2003. By the time, the estimated reference price for the completed plant is NOK 7.5 billion to NOK 7.5 billion.
"We're now looking forward to a dialogue in finding the right partners and exploring financing models. Attention in future will concentrate on building the organisation, risk management and speeding up detail design work," said the CEO.
Salfjord is a pioneering venture focused on the development and operation of Salfjord I – Tjeldbergodden, a state-of-the-art salmon farm. Looking ahead, this Norwegian company has the vision to double their production capacity by 2035. They commit to continuous growth through meticulous planning, implementing a comprehensive scaling strategy, and actively progressing their roadmap. As expected, they want is to establish one of the largest and most advanced salmon farms in the country.
