May 26, 2008

Grieg Seafood Hjaltland expands salmon production through acquisitions

Grieg Seafoods's subsidiary ''Grieg Seafood Hjaltland'' has acquired seven salmon farm licenses including organic salmon stock.

Grieg Seafood Hjaltland, the largest salmon farming and processing company in Shetland, acquired farm assets such as barges, boats and cages and a farm with Organic Salmon certified by the Organic Food Federation and several farm licenses from the Joint Administrators of No Catch Limited.

Total purchases amounted to GBP 3,6 Million.

Grieg Seafood's Chief Executive Officer, Per Grieg, said the seven farm licences will increase flexibility in production, creating more specialisation for an even more so consumer tailored salmon production in the coming years.

Four of the sites will be highly beneficial to Grieg Seafood Hjaltland as they are all located on the east side of Shetland where the company has a strong base of operations.

With one of the sites growing organic salmon, Grieg Seafood Hjaltland can now offer a steady supply of organic salmon under its Organic brand WildWater - Farmed in the Wild.

This will make the company the world's largest producer of organic salmon.

Although the acquisition will increase the company's farm site production capacity, it would not increase the harvest guidance for 2008 which will remain at about 16,000 tonnes.

The company aims to increase harvesting to about 20,000 tonnes gutted weight by 2010.

Grieg Seafood Hjaltland's processing company Lerwick Fish Traders will in turn benefit directly from an increased farm production through increased processing volumes of primary, secondary and soon value added products.

The company is also in the final stage of constructing the processing plant in Lerwick where it will start producing smoked and cured salmon as well as finished or semi-finished products within the second quarter 2008.