Archive for February 2021
Land ho!
The first salmon to be raised in Scottish Sea Farms’ smolt hatchery at Barcaldine, on the west coast of Scotland, were harvested in November last year from the company’s Loch Nevis C farm. It was a major milestone for Scottish Sea Farms (SSF), which had invested £58m in the Barcaldine site. Taking up 17,500 square…
Read MoreBenchmark’s CleanTreat set for launch in Q2
Biotech group Benchmark Holdings is looking to roll out its novel sea lice treatment, CleanTreat, in the second quarter of this year. The announcement came as the group also reported increased revenue and profit, year-on-year, for Q1 of its 2021 financial year. The new treatment system combines Benchmark’s BMK08 medicine with the CleanTreat filtering system,…
Read MoreScottish Sea Farms smiling again
Scottish Sea Farms enjoyed a far better year in 2020, producing an operating profit of NOK 308m (£26m), up from NOK 292m (£24.6m) in 2019, the company’s accounts show. Revenues totalled NOK 1,699bn (£143.5m) against 1,834bn in Q4 2019, producing an EBIT per kg of NOK 12.9 (NOK 11.4). The company is jointly owned by…
Read MoreSlaughter ship Norwegian Gannet wins 10-year reprieve
THE owner of the salmon slaughter ship Norwegian Gannet has been granted a 10-year dispensation allowing it to work with fish outside Norway’s fish quality regulations. Built three years ago to harvest salmon before it reached processing centres in Hirtshals, Denmark, the vessel has been at the centre of a sometimes acrimonious dispute between the…
Read MoreAnalysing a Cleaner Future
Like all businesses, the analytical laboratories of James Hutton Limited have felt the brunt of the COVID crisis. The commercial subsidiary of Scotland’s James Hutton Institute remains open for business, however, offering a range of techniques for sediment and water, suitable for identifying extremely low level, trace quantities of contaminant, including emamectin benzoate in sediment.…
Read MoreSSPO submits evidence to Brexit inquiry
Scottish salmon farmers have experienced delays, reputational damage through unreliable deliveries and price falls in the immediate aftermath of Brexit, the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation has told a committee of Westminster MPs. The SSPO is confident, however, that if the problems at the border can be resolved, sales volumes and revenue can return to pre-Brexit…
Read MoreWarning over ballan wrasse feed
Giving the wrong type of feed to young ballan wrasse could seriously impact their health, researchers at Nofima – the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research – have found. A study of wrasse development found that young fish fed on extruded feeds – where the feed materials are processed at high temperatures –…
Read MoreLerøy Seafood set to invest in land-based salmon farming
Lerøy Seafood is planning to move into land based salmon farming. The company published its financial results for the final quarter of 2020, showing that operating profits fell from NOK 769m (£65m) in Q4 2019 to NOK 441m (£37m). Lerøy is the joint owner of Scottish Sea Farms. As with other final quarter results announced…
Read MoreThe innovative solution to sea lice
UK-based feed manufacturer World Feeds Ltd has been going from strength to strength throughout the pandemic, with its recent factory redevelopment promising a tenfold increase in production output. This has major implications for the company’s growth and its cleaner fish feeding systems, Vita Aqua Feeds (VAF), targeted at combatting the sea lice issue. VAF’s soft,…
Read MoreScottish farmers call for compensation for seal attacks
If fish farmers are not allowed to kill seals even if they break into a salmon pen, the industry should be compensated for the resulting losses. That’s the message from the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation to the Scottish government, which has outlawed the use of lethal force against seals. The Scottish government has indicated that…
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