Mowi wins Ireland's first new salmon licence in 17 years

The fish farmer already operates sites at Ahabeg and Roancarrig on the western side of the bay. The new farm is about three or four kilometres east north east of those sites.

“By developing a new site for organic salmon in Bantry Bay, the continuing development of stocking, harvesting, fallowing, and rotation programmes can be advanced in compliance with international best practice, thereby securing the long-term future of aquaculture in the area,” said a spokesman for Mowi Ireland.

A positive for Irish aquaculture

“This is a very positive step forward for the Irish aquaculture industry as a whole.

“Our seas have rightly been identified as a key component of sustainable economic growth.”

Mowi Ireland’s all in-all out stocking policy means the new farm won’t be developed until the Ahabeg and Roancarrig sites had been harvested and fallowed, which won’t happen for another year.

18 pens

The Shot Head farm will have a maximum permitted biomass of 2,800 tonnes over a 24-month production cycle and will have 18 pens. The large number of pens is required because of the lower stocking density of organic fish farms. 

Once work begins, the development at Shot Head is likely to be complete in just 14 weeks in accordance with Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine installation requirements.

Mowi said the department had originally granted the licence in 2015, but that the decision was appealed to the Aquaculture Licence Appeals Board by 14 parties, including Mowi, for various reasons.

The firm said it had appealed the 2015 granting on the grounds that minor prescriptive clauses in the licence failed to take into account potential future technological developments.

Mowi Ireland has three other applications awaiting approval, two for salmon farms and one for an on-land unit for the production of cleaner fish. The oldest of those applications dates from 2014.

Good results

The Irish operation is a relatively small but currently profitable part of Norwegian-owned Mowi’, producing 7,961 gutted weight tonnes of salmon last year, all of which is organic. 

Demand for organic products means that it has recently been Mowi’s most profitable region per kilo of fish produced. In the first quarter of this year, Mowi Ireland made an operating profit of €5.3 million on a harvest of 1,157 gwt.

“This is equivalent to as much as €4.55 per kg, which is an all-time high margin for our Irish operations,” said Mowi in its Q1 report, adding that sales of eggs from its breeding operation in Ireland contributed to the result.