Dongwon invests in Salmon Evolution
SALMON Evolution has announced that it has entered into an investment agreement with Dongwon Industries, one of the world’s leading seafood enterprises based in South Korea, whereby Dongwon will make a NOK 50 million investment to acquire a minority share in Salmon Evolution.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two partners further plan to enter into a partnership on jointly constructing a land-based fish farm in South Korea utilising Salmon Evolution’s technology. They will also jointly consider future opportunities for scaling similar projects in other Asian markets as well as the North American market.
‘This is a very exciting opportunity for us’ says CEO Håkon André Berg at Salmon Evolution. ‘Collaboration with a global player like Dongwon Industries will strengthen our commercial opportunities as well as giving us solid industrial support for scaling our concept in new markets.
‘The dialogue with Dongwon Industries has been ongoing for some time, and it became clear for us that the company had the intention to invest in Salmon Evolution. However complications related to Covid-19 delayed the process, which makes it even more gratifying that we have now have an agreement in place’.
‘After assessing a number of projects for land-based fish farming enterprises, we concluded that Salmon Evolution represents the best investment and partnership opportunity in the sector,’ explains Kiyun Yun, Dongwon’s CFO.
‘We believe that Salmon Evolution’s technology does the best job of recreating natural marine conditions while avoiding the many challenges faced by conventional fish farming in the sea.’
Salmon Evolution began in May the construction of a land-based fish farm in western Norway at Indre Harøy, Hustadvika municipality.
This facility will be based on 65 per cent reuse and 35 per cent supply of filtered and temperature-controlled seawater, which will contribute to optimal operations and substantially reduce risk compared with other types of land-based aquaculture using virtually full water recirculation.
On completion, the fish farm at Indre
Harøy will have an annual production capacity of about 36 000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon.
‘An investment by a large global seafood player sends a strong signal to the industry at this early phase,’ says Tore A Tønseth, chair of Salmon Evolution.
‘Our existing owners have broad experience from the whole value chain for conventional aquaculture and a high level of expertise with the various technology concepts for land-based fish farming. The fact that Dongwon is not only investing in us, but also plans to enter into a partnership with our company, is a strong verification of our potential.’
In addition to the value potential offered by building similar land-based farms in other parts of the world, Tønseth highlights the substantial sales and distribution opportunities which could come out of this partnership.
‘This takes us a long step forward in the work needed to ensure scaling and access in a world market where quality and sustainability are becoming ever more important. Dongwon Industries will also be a strategic partner in our future distribution network.’