Warm water prawns from a cold climate

A STAVANGER based company is planning to cultivate warm water king prawns in Norway. Magnar Hansen of the Happy Prawn Company is working on a scheme to launch Norway’s first commercial land based prawn farm, and told the website Tekfisk.no that he was looking at three possible locations in Norway where waste heat was available.

He also said he has attracted a lot of interest in the project from potential investors, both inside and outside the aquaculture industry.

Using a 12,000 litre tank filled with seawater, the company has been running a small pilot plant producing fresh king prawns for the past eight months, the results of which have proved promising. Hansen said his goal was to have produced 100 tonnes before the end of next year. In the longer term, he is also looking at setting up a farm outside Norway.