Grieg Seafood Hjaltland Expands

Grieg Seafood Hjaltland, The largest salmon farming and processing company in Shetland, acquired farm assets such as barges, boats and cages as well as a farm with, Organic Salmon certified by the Organic Food Federation and several farm licenses for £3,6 Million from the Joint Administrators of No Catch Limited (In Administration).

The purchase had been carried out jointly with Scottish Seafarms Ltd that has purchased a similar amount of assets.

Grieg Seafood’s Chief Executive Officer, Per Grieg, said: "We are very pleased to have completed the purchase. The seven farm licences will increase our production capacity and flexibility for an even more so consumer tailored salmon production in the coming years."

Four of the sites – Swining Voe 1, Swining Voe 2, Swining Voe 3, and North Voe Whalsay - will be highly beneficial to Grieg Seafood Hjaltland from a strategic point of view as they are all located on the east side of Shetland where the company has already a significant operation.

With organic salmon already being grown on one of the sites, Grieg Seafood Hjaltland will now be in a position to offer continues supply of organic salmon in 2008 and thereafter under its Organic brand WildWater – Farmed in the Wild.

This will make us the world's largest producer of ORGANIC Salmon. The sales will be handled by our sales & marketing company Shetland Products.

Grieg Seafood Hjaltland Group already produces over one third and processes over 50 per cent of Shetland’s total salmon production. This latest acquisition will increase the company’s farm site production capacity, but will not increase the harvest guidance for 2008 which will remain at about 16.000 tons.

The company is forecasting to increase harvesting to about 20,000 tonnes gutted weight by 2010. Grieg Seafood Hjaltland's MD Michael Stark said: The additional farm sites and harvest volume of organic salmon in 2008 will strengthen Hjaltland’s market position as the leading producer of high quality sustainable and organic salmon from Shetland (Scotland).

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 Grieg Seafood Hjaltland Group is 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.