Trout farmer receives first eggs – and eyes US expansion

Hima Seafood has just taken delivery of the first eggs for its new trout farm in Telemark, Norway.

The company also disclosed that it is looking at moving into the United States over the next few years. Hima’s managing director, Sten Falkum, told the US magazine Forbes that it has acquired a plot of land in North Carolina for that purpose although he did not want to disclose exactly where at this time.

Trout is very popular among American consumers and the US is one of Norway’s leading export markets for the fish.

Meanwhile, the company’s Norwegian facility at Rjukan (pictured) is moving ahead at pace following the arrival of 420,000 trout ova last week.

The Hima farm is based on a freshwater recycling system and is one of the largest private aquaculture projects in Norway worth an estimated NOK 2.5bn (£190m). It is expected to produce around 8,000 tonnes a year.

Falkum told Forbes that Hima is working on selling its premium sashimi grade trout to restaurants in Norway and mainland Europe.

He said the company intends to use the Norwegian site as a pilot before it proceeds with its US project.

“We really think that as soon as the farm at Rjukan is verified, we will have a capital structure plan that is on a schedule, and which we will hopefully be able to close in 2026 and start construction. After that, we will actually build continuously all the way”, he said to Forbes.

Eighteen months ago, the London-based environmental infrastructure fund JLEN said it was setting aside £40m over the next three to four years, to invest in the company.