‘Proper expertise’ makes Miami mission a gem for investors

‘THERE is a reason investors are so close to Atlantic Sapphire,’ Johan Andreassen told the Norwegian business newspaper Finansavisen.

‘There is proper salmon expertise behind it. I have done nothing but salmon since I went to secondary school. The same applies to the others in the organisation.’

Andreassen has been living in Miami full-time for the past seven years, but his salmon farming career began in Norway.

He founded Atlantic Sapphire in 2010 with fellow salmon entrepreneur Bjorn-Vegard Lovik. According to the company’s website, they had pioneered the use of cleaner fish in Norway in the 1990s when building up Villa Organic, the first Norwegian organic salmon farming company.

‘Atlantic Sapphire was founded as a result of the lessons learnt in Villa Organic, along with a vision to continue to lead the salmon farming industry towards a more sustainable future,’ said Atlantic Sapphire.

‘One of the main realisations was that no matter how sustainable the farming methods are, salmon farmers still have to fly the fish across the globe…in order to deliver to end markets, such as the United States.’

Andreassen and Lovik partnered with Danish recirculation aquaculture expert, Thue Holm, and created a commercial pilot of a RAS system in Denmark.

This has now has been operating since 2011 and has produced more than 25 generations of Atlantic salmon to date, said the company.