WellFish Tech secures major Salmon Group contract

Aquaculture biotechnology firm WellFish Tech has entered into a commercial partnership with Salmon Group, Norway's most important network for small and medium-sized fish farmers, marking what the fish health technology company has described as the largest contract in its history.

Under the agreement, WellFish Tech will provide systematic blood biomarker analysis across sites and companies within Salmon Group’s network, which includes 40 owner companies and 62 food-producing businesses along the Norwegian coast.

Together, the group’s members produce more than 220,000 tonnes of salmon and trout each year.

The partnership will give individual companies access to biological data for operational decision-making and fish health reporting, while Salmon Group will receive a consolidated overview of fish health conditions across the network.

According to the companies, the group-level view will support coordination between neighbouring sites, particularly where several producers operate within the same fjord system. Shared biological data could be used to compare conditions across sites, exchange experience and coordinate contingency plans for challenges such as disease and sea lice, Wellfish Tech said.

“We need solutions that actually tell us what is happening inside the fish, not just what we can observe from the outside,” said Jan Olav Langeland, CEO of Salmon Group.

“Blood biochemistry gives us that. And when we can see the fish health status across sites and fjord systems, it opens up a completely different level of coordination and joint preparedness. That is what this agreement is about.”

WellFish Tech CEO Charlie Granfelt said the agreement showed that blood biochemistry monitoring could be expanded beyond individual farms.

“Bringing systematic blood biomarker monitoring to a network of this scale is a significant step, not just for WellFish Tech, but for what evidence-based fish health management can look like across the industry,” he said.

“It shows that clinical biochemistry monitoring can scale from a single site to an entire network, and that is exactly the direction we believe the industry is heading. We are looking forward to working with the central administration and the companies of Salmon Group.”

The deal follows a series of developments for Paisley-headquartered WellFish Tech in Norway.

In June, the company received clearance from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, Mattilsynet, to use its non-lethal blood sampling method in Atlantic salmon weighing more than 500g at commercial aquaculture sites.

It has also renewed its work with Bue Salmon and entered a separate commercial partnership with land-based producer Andfjord Salmon.

This month, Wellfish Tech announced the appointment of experienced aquaculture finance professional Erik Tveteraas as Finance Director for the Group, which employs 26 people and operates in the UK and Ireland, Norway and Canada.