Laksesystemer wins feed system contract for 36,000t salmon farm

Turnkey supplier Artec Aqua is building the facility for Salmon Evolution at Indre Harøy on Norway’s west coast.

The first phase consists of 12 tanks with a diameter of 28 metres and an annual capacity of 9,000 tonnes of fish (round weight). The overall project is designed for a total annual capacity of 36,000 tonnes.

Invested heavily

“We have long foreseen the growing industry of land-based aquaculture and we have invested heavily in technology development and in positioning our company to this market segment,” said Laksesystemer chief executive Ole Gabriel Kverneland in a press release.

“For us, this is a huge contract and a true recognition of the work we have done so far in developing technology aimed at opening some of the major bottlenecks that we believe may have limited the land-based aquaculture potential.”

Cost gap can be narrowed

He added that part of the financial viability of land based on-growing projects relies on economies of scale and on implementing technology for effective daily operations in a different way than a traditional land based smolt farm.

“Compared with traditional cage-based aquaculture, most land-based projects built so far have been very labour intensive per fish produced,” said Kverneland.

“With industry of scale and the right technology this operational cost can be greatly reduced, and the production cost gap between cage and land based on-growing can be narrowed.”