The pioneer land-based salmon farmer has announced that Jon-Birger Løvik is their new COO. In practice, this appointment is an internal promotion, since Løvik had been working in Atlantic Sapphire as Director of Aqua Technology and Deputy COO from March 2021. Moreover, from 2015 to 2018 he has already been the company's CEO in Denmark.
During the presentation in his February monthly update, CEO Johan Andreassen highlighted the positive impact the executive's arrival in Miami last year has had on the company. Løvik, who has extensive experience in salmon biology, farming, and RAS systems, takes over from Bjørn-Vegard Løvik, co-founder of Atlantic Sapphire, who has been holding the position on an interim basis since March last year, when Dharma Rajeswaran, previous COO, changed his role for chief of staff.
With a strong focus on R&D and innovation, Atlantic Sapphire is a pioneering land-raised salmon farming, through his trademark Bluehouse that enables the Company to commercially scale up production in end markets close to the consumer. They have been operating its innovation center in Denmark since 2011. In the United States facility at Homestead, Florida, they have completed Phase 1 construction, which provides the capacity to harvest approximately 10,000 tons (HOG) of salmon annually, and they are currently constructing their Phase 2 expansion, which will bring total annual production capacity to 25,000 tons, and has a targeted harvest volume in 2031 of 220,000 tons.
