January 3, 2012

Marine Harvest divests Aquagen

Marine Harvest has sold its 31.3% shares in Aquagen to the firm's key owner, EW Group GmbH.

One of the rationalisations for selling the Aquagen-shares is the fact that Marine Harvest has decided to focus its breeding activities around the renowned Mowi strain. Marine Harvest has carried out breeding of Atlantic salmon based on Mowi strain for more than 40 years.

The Mowi strain has demonstrated good survival and low feed conversion ratio. The breeding methods have further led to a higher resistance to several salmon diseases. Marine Harvests efforts in this area of the value chain have been significantly enforced during last years and will be a strong focus area going forward. The company expects applied science to lead to several improvements in breeding methods.

Marine Harvests strategy is to be a leading force within sustainable salmon farming and the company has 89 on-going research projects.