Norway extends fish farm permit review
Minister gives committee an extra six months to deliver ‘simpler and more holistic system’
Norway’s fisheries minister, Bjørnar Skjæran, has extended the deadline for a review of the permit system for fish farming by six months.
A committee appointed in October 2021 was supposed to deliver its report by March 2023 but has asked for more time.
“When the committee now asks for more time for the job of looking at how the permit system for the aquaculture industry should be set up for the future, I listen to it,” said Skjæran in a press release.
“It is important that the committee does a thorough job of assessing how we can get a simpler and more holistic system, which contributes to sustainable growth in the industry and also takes wild salmon into account, and facilitates the greatest possible value creation for society.”
Adjusted mandate
The committee was appointed by former prime minister Erna Solberg’s centre-right government shortly before it lost a general election and was replaced by a centre-left government led by the Labour and Centre parties.
On 29 November 2021, the new government decided that the committee should continue with a somewhat adjusted mandate and composition.
Since then, the government has proposed a 40% resource-use tax on the value added to salmon and trout during their time spent growing in pens in the country’s fjords.
That proposal, made last September, has led to many farming companies freezing their investment plans, with some warning that the cash grab jeopardises Norway’s position as the world’s leading producer of farmed salmonids.
