Icelandic on-land salmon farmer Landeldi nets top executive
Former banker will lead company drive to produce 33,500 tonnes of fish per year
Icelanic on-land fish farmer Landeldi – which plans to produce 33,500 tonnes of salmon per year by 2028 - has strengthened its management team by appointing experienced banking and finance professional Eggert Thór Kristófersson as its new chief executive.
He takes over the role from Landeldi chairman Halldór Ólafur Halldórsson.
Landeldi currently operates four sea tanks at its Deep Atlantic farm site in Ölfus municipality, south-western Iceland, and plans a total of 14 operational tanks by the end of next year. Biomass production is estimated to be at around 500 tonnes at the end of 2022.
The Deep Atlantic site currently houses 450,000 salmon and the company produces approximately 1.6 million smolts at its hatchery at Öxnalækur in the nearby town of Hveragerði.
Asset management
Kristófersson worked from 1995 to 2008 at Íslandsbanki and Glitnir Bank, where he was managing director of Glitnir Bank’s asset management in Iceland and Finland.
He held the position of a finance manager of the company N1 (now the listed retail company Festi hf.) in 2011 and later CEO in February 2015. He has been the chairman of the board of N1, Krónan, ELKO, Festi Real Estate, Bakkinn Supply Hotel, Malik Supply A/S and Nordic Marine Oil in Denmark, and is a licensed stockbroker.
"I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in the development of fish farming on land,” Kristófersson said in a press release. “Landeldi has a solid, experienced staff with great knowledge of aquaculture. I look forward to working with the talent on board, to achieve an even greater excellence in producing a high-quality product for export, and obtain a positive environmental impact in the process.”
Everything in place
Landeldi chairman Halldórsson said Kristófersson’s appointment meant that Landeldi had now secured all the fundamentals for building a large-scale salmon farm.
“Eggert Thór is a powerful, experienced leader with ambitious environmental goals,” said Halldórsson. “He has had a successful career as a manager of a listed growth company for the last decade, his appointment underlines that Landeldi has ambitious growth plans ahead.”
Landeldi’s plans include the utilisation of fish waste for soil enriching fertiliser. The company has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Farmers, Association of Iceland and made a purchase agreement for technical equipment from Norwegian sludge treatment specialist Blue Ocean Technology.