Bakkafrost plans hatchery investment

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BAKKAFROST, the principal fish farming company in the Faroe Islands, has announced it will enhance its hatchery with a significant new investment.

The company said the new long-term goal is to increase the size of smolts to 400-500g each in 2019.

‘Bakkafrost has approved the construction of a new hatchery at Strond in Klaksvík, Faroe Islands,’ it said in a statement.

‘The investment in the new hatchery will amount to approximately 650 million Danish kroners (DKK). The new hatchery is planned to be finished in 2018.’

Meanwhile, Bakkaf- rost has just published its annual report which says the prices for value added products (VAP) have been good since the end of 2014.

Raw material prices have also played an important role, as the VAP segment purchases its raw material on the salmon spot market every week.

The report said: ‘The raw material prices in DKK have been fairly stable in 2015. The value added products are typically sold on fixed price contracts with a duration of 6-12 months, where the prices for VAP products follow the trend on the spot market with a time lag.

‘The feed prices were on a record high price level in the beginning of 2015, but decreased during the year. They were significantly higher in 2015 compared to 2014.’

The operations harvested a total of 50,565 tonnes gutted weight, compared to 44,013 tonnes in 2014.Operational EBIT was DKK 1,000.6 million, compared to DKK 833.8 million in 2014.

March 2015 marked the five-year milestone since Bakkafrost was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

The company controls the value chain from the sourcing of raw material for fishmeal and oil to finished value added salmon products. Last year it fed its salmon with feed containing purified fish oil.

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