January 16, 2023

 

Norway's Kvarøy Arctic unfazed by country's 40% tax proposal on aquaculture

 

 

 

Indre Kvarøy, Norway-based Kvarøy Arctic is moving ahead with several multimillion-dollar projects, despite uncertainties caused by Norway's introduction of a federal 40% tax proposal on aquaculture operations.

 

1814 Salmon, a new company formed by Kvarøy, Fram Seafood, and investment firm Nyhamn, is building a kr100 million (US$10 million) seafood-processing factory in Eidsvoll, Norway. In development for two years, the new facility is expected to open in June 2023.

 

"Now everything is in place with plans, suppliers and financing," Kvarøy Arctic chief executive officer Alf Goran Knutsen, who serves as 1814's chairman, told SeafoodSource.

 

The facility will allow Kvarøy to process nearly all of its own salmon in-house, though it will still be using third-party processors for a portion of its production. The company's eventual goal is to conduct 100% of its processing in-house in Norway, according to Knutsen.

 

"Ideally, one would have wanted the processing out here in Kvarøy, but it is not easy logistics. So the solution was to put the new facility down in the vicinity of the logistics on to the (United States), at Gardermoen," Knutsen said.

 

Equipment-maker Marel will deliver the technology for the new factory, according to Knutsen, who said around 60 new jobs will be created in Eidsvoll municipality over the next few years as a result of the project.

 

Kvarøy also recently finished a kr125 million (US$12.5 million) renovation of its salmon hatchery. The expansion doubles its production output to 10 million smolt annually and will reduce the facility's overall energy consumption by up to 50%.

 

Located in the Mo Industrial Park in Mo I Rana, Norway, Kvarøy Smolt has ample access to water and surplus heat from surrounding industry, Kvarøy chief marketing officer Jennifer Bushman said. Kvarøy Smolt buys hot water from the adjacent Mo Fjernvarme and the residual cooling water from nearby Elkem Rana's furnaces.

 

The hatchery has been upgraded with new energy technology and a new water-treatment plant equipped with new steel tanks from AKVA Group, each holding approximately 190,000 liters of water, that optimise oxygen recovery and reduce the hatchery's overall water consumption.

 

"It means a future of more-efficient smolt production techniques," Bushman told SeafoodSource.

 

The looming tax increases in Norway are on Kvarøy's radar, but are not prohibiting the company from continuing to invest in growth opportunities, Bushman said.

 

"So many companies have diverted from salmon farming in Norway, but we are still continuing to move forward with the investments that we committed to – even in the face of this uncertainty," Bushman said. "No one knows where the tax thing is going to land. We are just hanging on and continuing to move forward."

 

- SeafoodSource