News / Grieg drops plan to sell isles’ operation
THE SHETLAND operation of Norwegian company Grieg Seafood is no longer up for sale, according to the company’s local manager Sigurd Pettersen.
The isles’ largest salmon producer, Grieg Seafood Hjaltland, incurred heavy losses in the final quarter of last year, which led to job losses at the company’s farms as well as its processing plant.
As part of a strategic review of the company’s operations in Shetland, a sale of its assets was also considered.
According to trade press reports, a number of well-known players in the industry such as Cooke Aquaculture, Leroy Seafood Group and Scottish Sea Farms had expressed an interest.
However, Grieg Seafood has now said that it is no longer interested in selling as it felt the bids received did not reflect the improvements in performance experienced in Shetland in recent months.
The company – which employs around 170 people in the islands – is in the process of changing its salmon production cycle from 24 to 18 months in a bid to improve profitability.
Pettersen said the weaker pound following the UK’s vote to leave the EU would only be of limited benefit since 60 per cent of Shetland production was sold within the UK anyhow.
In the longer term, however, a weak pound would increase the cost pressure, Pettersen said, as salmon feed and equipment is mostly imported from outside the UK.
“The board of the company felt that despite the particular difficulties of running an aquaculture business in Scotland it would be more beneficial to continue running the business rather than selling it,” he said.
Petterson is known as an outspoken critic of the aquaculture planning system and environmental regulator SEPA.
He added: “Our new hatchery has opened up a number of new opportunities for us. We have better control of the water quality and we can also grow bigger smolts.
“We aim at 180 to 200gram smolts which will help us starting harvesting salmon after only 12 months.
“What we are aiming at is reducing the production cycle by half a year, thereby reducing cost but also having less biological challenges such as sea lice.”
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