Norway Royal Salmon farm. (Photo Credit: NRS)

Norway Royal Salmon purchases farming licences for EUR 12.2m

NORWAY
Thursday, June 21, 2018, 23:10 (GMT + 9)

Norway Royal Salmon (NRS) has purchased 700 tonnes of maximum authorised biomass (MAB) in Region Nord, Northern Norway, for EUR 12.2 million in order to grow its production volume.

The company owns 39,326 tonnes MAB for salmon farming divided into 34,646 tonnes MAB in Region Nord located in West Finnmark and Troms and 4,680 tonnes MAB in the South Region, in the area around Haugesund, Salmon Business reported.

In addition, the Group has minority interests in three associated Norwegian fish farming companies, which together have ten farming licenses, as well as Arctic Fish in Iceland.

On Wednesday, when the licence auction launched by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries has not concluded yet, Minister of Fisheries Per Sandberg pointed out that the auction has already created record-breaking revenues for the country’s marine farming municipalities and county municipalities.

So far, 13 companies had bought 11,879 tonnes of the new authorised maximum biomass, representing 77 per cent of the total capacity of licences for sale, for about NOK 2,300 (EUR 242.8 million).

When 3,480 tonnes of capacity remained, after two days' auction, Cermaq Group had adquired licences for 3,200 tonnes for NOK 663.2 million (EUR 70 million) while Salmar bought licences for 1,315 tonnes, for which it paid NOK 214.2 million (USD 22.6 million).

Marine Harvest, for its part, paid NOK 427.6 million (EUR 45 million) for 2,697 tonnes.

“Of what has so far been sold through the auction, more than EUR 243 million will be distributed to the municipal sector through the aquaculture fund. In addition, EUR 79,2 million is derived from growth attained by the sale of licenses at a fixed price last winter,” Sandberg stated.

In his view, this is an exceptionally well-deserved reward for the many municipalities that have for so long toiled at this incredibly important task of laying the groundwork for this industry of the future.

The Ministry informed that the money from the salmon license auction is allocated to the Aquaculture Fund, which had been created for municipalities to receive greater recompense for the job they do in smoothing the way for the aquaculture industry.

Municipalities with salmon production will receive 80 per cent of the revenues achieved from sales of production licenses, distributed through the aquaculture fund.

“Companies that have so far succeeded in the auction are diverse; everything from large international groups, to small, localised producers. The preliminary outcome reflects the current structure of the industry, and in fact, the small players have, relatively speaking, ramped up their share of production capacity. The auction is in many ways an accurate thumbnail of the marine farming industry: A sound business and district policy in one,” Sandberg said. 

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