Aerial view of Lerøy Midt aquaculture farm.
Lerøy Seafood Group.
As we have previously reported, Mattilsynet, Norway's Food Safety Authority, is conducting an audit of the biggest Norwegian salmon farming companies in an effort to tackle the fish health and mortality crisis that has unfolded in the country over the previous year.
Following SalMar and Mowi, the third of Norway's salmon giants to be audited is Lerøy Seafood Group, which has three salmon farming companies covering three distinct regions along the Norwegian coast: Lerøy Aurora, Lerøy Midt and Lerøy Sjøtroll.
The Norwegian Food Safety Authority carried out its audit of Lerøy from March 20 to April 26, 2024, identifying one "non-conformity with the regulations", for which the authority has requested Lerøy to submit a formal explanation and time-bound plan for implementation by June 14. The authority also identified one area with "room for improvement".
The Mattilsynet report highlights "insufficient learning across the company" in the prevention of non-conformities.
"Quality managers meet weekly and discuss documents across the three sister companies. It is not clear to us how the companies systematically implement the same measures, based on experiences in one of the sister companies. Furthermore, it is unclear what considerations are made when one or more of the companies choose not to implement a measure," the Mattilsynet report states.
Two key areas that need action, according to Mattilsynet, are contingency planning and biosecurity planning.
"Learning related to incidents with the pearl-chain jellyfish in Lerøy Sjøtroll is poorly implemented in Lerøy Midt. Learning related to BKD in Lerøy Midt is poorly implemented in Lerøy Sjøtroll. The risks are present for both mentioned companies," the auditors report.
On biosecurity, Mattilysnet warns that the group does not have a consistent agreed approach to best practice across its different sites.
"The site-specific biosecurity plans are differently designed, including the description of the site, site risk analysis, biosecurity manager, nearby sites, etc. It is unclear to us how you systematically detect and correct errors in the biosecurity plans. We were informed that the biosecurity plans will be harmonized at the next review," the Mattilsynet report states.
The auditors commented that several fish health and welfare impacts could have been "avoided or reduced in scope... if Lerøy had utilized learning within its organization."
The Mattilsynet audit also said it was "unclear" how Lerøy's sub-divisions ensured a consistent approach to animal welfare across the different sites.
However, the report noted, several projects for reporting welfare data at the three Lerøy sites have recently begun, and auditors were shown details of how this data-collection would be used as the basis for future decision-making on welfare.
Lerøy Seafood has recently been under the spotlight in recent weeks for separate issue related to biosecurity.
Approximately 8,400 salmon escaped from a Lerøy Midt farming site earlier in May, with fears that the escaped fish could be carrying viral and bacterial pathogens causing kidney disease and pancreas disease - and thus pose a threat to wild salmon populations.
As of May 20, the company has recaptured about 1,200 of the escaped fish, but Norway's Directorate of Fisheries has ordered Lerøy to extend recapture efforts.
Lerøy Seafood Group recently posted its first-quarter figures for 2024, showing a drop in earnings before tax of 15% compared with Q1 2023.
