April 24, 2020

Samherji to expand usable capacity at land-based aquaculture site

Samherji is drilling three new seawater boreholes at Grindavik, Iceland, its land-based aquaculture operation, in which will allow it to raise Arctic char production to almost 4,000 tonnes, reports Undercurrent News.

Described as a "considerable investment"—the company declined to specify how much—the project should mean better "water economy" after 2019's expansion at the site, and prepare it for the next phase of the expansion.

The Grindavik site last year received an extension of its operating license to 3,000 tonnes, and is licensed to farm a further 1,600 tonnes in Vatnsleysu. Not all of this is currently being used; once this construction is completed by the end of June it will be able to produce almost 4,000 tonnes in total, the company said.

"This will significantly increase the capacity of the aquaculture plant, but this is a large amount of water that we are pumping," said Hjalti Bogason, Samherji's director of aquaculture in the Reykjanes Peninsula. "When construction is complete, the station will be able to pump 2.5 cubic metres of water per second."

The Grindavik site raises juveniles to 100 grams before moving them to outdoor ponds, before being transported to Sandgerdi for processing.

Samherji's aquaculture unit is the largest producer of Arctic char in the world, it said, with its current production of 3,800 tonnes per year making up almost half of worldwide output.