Skretting plant ‘sign of confidence’ in Atlantic Sapphire
Skretting is to build a feed plant in Florida to supply land-based salmon farmer Atlantic Sapphire, which has the world’s largest RAS (recirculating aquaculture system) facility in Miami.
Atlantic Sapphire will commit to buy the majority of its feed from Skretting for its Bluehouse farm over the next 10 years.
The deal will minimise the carbon footprint of transporting feed to the facility, and is expected to cut the salmon farmer’s logistics costs, and therefore cost of production, by approximately $0.3/kg HOG.
The agreement commits both companies to a close cooperation on R&D and the development of land-based salmon feeds, including implementing novel ingredients.
Atlantic Sapphire aims to eventually produce up to 220,000 tonnes of salmon a year in its US facility, but the company has suffered major setbacks in the past two years.
Share price
It has experienced mass mortality events, cost overruns, delayed harvests and, in September, a fire at its site in Denmark that destroyed the facility. So far this year, the share price has fallen 70%.
Feed is Atlantic Sapphire’s largest cost, with current supply coming from Canada.
CEO Johan E. Andreassen said: “Atlantic Sapphire’s business case is centred on technological development and in-market production of delicious and healthy salmon with significant sustainability benefits compared to conventional ways of salmon farming.
“Having our most important production input locally fits perfectly with this strategy, as it reduces production cost and GHG emissions significantly, while at the same time accelerating the technological development of a customised feed for our Bluehouses that we expect will lead to higher productivity and output.
Future growth
“Further, we see this agreement with the world’s leading salmon feed producer as a strong sign of confidence in our business case and future growth.”
Skretting CEO Therese Log Bergjord said: “With the long-term agreement that Skretting and Atlantic Sapphire have established, we are committed to increasing capacity to facilitate future growth of the land-based salmon industry in the US.
“Atlantic Sapphire has been a leader in the land-based salmon revolution, and I am extremely confident that we can deliver on our shared aspirations, and that the Bluehouse technology will continue to thrive.”
