Marine Harvest to spend £30m on Newfoundland hatchery

The company acquired the hatchery, at Port Hampton, Stephenville, as part of the CAD315 (£183m) purchase of Northern Harvest, which continues to operate under the Northern Harvest name. The hatchery operates as Northern Harvest Smolt and has applied for planning permission under that name.

In a statement, Marine Harvest said the expanded facility will be comprised of the latest in recirculation technology and will enable Northern Harvest Sea Farms to fully utilise its licensed marine sites.

‘Significant investments’

It added: “Marine Harvest has a commitment to innovation, environmental performance, and sustainable growth of aquaculture on the east coast of Canada, with significant investments planned for Newfoundland.

“This investment supports the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s ‘Way Forward’ commitment to grow salmon aquaculture production to 50,000 tonnes.

“Marine Harvest will continue to invest to meet this target, supporting increased employment in the hatchery, at the sea sites, processing plants and in the supply and service sector.”

Hard to get eggs

Until the acquisition of Northern Harvest was approved by regulators earlier this month, Marine Harvest hadn’t farmed fish in Atlantic Canada, but had been buying up licences so it can do so. In early 2017 it acquired Gray Aqua Group, which has nine licences.

Alf-Helge Aarskog, Marine Harvest chief executive, has previously said that acquiring Northern Harvest’s smolt facility allowed the company the possibility to grow, as no smolt came with the Gray purchase.

“It’s very hard to get eggs for Newfoundland. They have narrow criteria,” said Aarskog.

The company has not said how many smolts the expanded facility at Port Hampton will produce.