Grow-out expert hired by Pure Salmon RAS supplier

Norway-based Pure Salmon Kaldnes (PSK) is the in-house RAS supplier for Pure Salmon, which plans a series of 10,000-tonne and 20,000-tonne on-land salmon farms in Europe, Asia and North America, and has doubled its staff to more than 100 over the past year to meet demand from Pure Salmon and external customers.

Haaland, 33, comes from the position of production manager at on-land fish farmer Fredrikstad Seafoods, in Fredrikstad south of Oslo. His experience in growing salmon to harvest size with Fredrikstad will be an asset for PSK, which has a record of delivering smolt facilities in Norway but less experience with RAS for grow-out.

Development and design

“I have worked with operations and process management related to land-based fish farming facilities for several years, and now I want to contribute with my competence to further develop and design such facilities for the future,” Haaland said in a press release.

“Land-based fish farming has a tremendous potential for development, and Pure Salmon Kaldnes is a solid and forward-looking company with very exciting plans for this area of expertise.”  

Grow-out competence

PSK’s communications and human resources director Per Håkon Stenhaug said: “We will continue to build traditional smolt plants but grow-out fish farming facilities will also form a significant part of the facilities that we design and build in the future.

“Therefore, Simen Bringa Haaland is a most welcome capacity and resource for the company. He possesses very valuable competence in this area and comes with experience that very few others have today. This will be very important for our process department, where he will be part of a team consisting of highly skilled professionals from several disciplines, including the operation of RAS facilities.”

Stenhaug added that Haaland had been with Fredrikstad Seafoods since graduating as a civil engineer in 2017 and had followed the whole process, from start-up to construction and eventually to managing daily operations.

Deep understanding of RAS

“In that sense, he has a deep understanding of land-based farming and above all RAS facilities, where he has worked with next-generation technologies and solutions,” added Stenhaug. “This wide and complete experience means that he has a very good understanding of the future challenges we will face.”

Pure Salmon, owned by Singapore-based 8F Asset Management, aims to produce 240,000 tonnes of salmon a year at on-land plants sited close to centres of population.

It has begun work on a 10,000-tonne RAS facility in Tazewell County, Virginia, in the United States, and has previously said that it also expects to start work facilities in Japan and Brunei this year.

Pure Salmon also plans five 20,000-tonne facilities in China, and a 20,000-tonne RAS in the land-locked southern African state of Lesotho.