Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:45 am PDT
Whole Foods deal has helped during COVID
Kvaroy CEO Alf Goran Knutsen noted the company has put all of its “energy" into the American market. Kvaroy launched its brand at the beginning of the pandemic in America in February, he added “Not the best timing, you can say"
But he said the company’s partnership with Whole Foods has buoyed it along somewhat throughout the crisis. However, COVID has impacted the company’s expansion into US restaurants.
“That, of course, collapsed. But we are now seeing a little bit of it coming back,” he said.
-- Rachel Sapin
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:40 am PDT
Atlantic Sapphire ticks the boxes for financing
Normally DNB leaves it to it clients to comment on financing, DNB Head of Foods and Seafoods Anne Hvistendahl said, however there are investors and employees with industrial experience the lender has faith in.
“There is a value proposition of being in Miami, ticking the box that it could be cost-efficient to produce salmon in the United States,” Hvistendahl said of Atlantic Sapphire.
If Atlantic Sapphire succeeds in its first stage, financing will then become much easier, but DNB remains extremely careful, she said.
-- Demi Korban
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:40 am PDT
Salmon is gaining foodservice market share thanks to COVID
Salmon is gaining market share in foodservice amid the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to do so for several months, Camanchaca CEO Ricardo Garcia Holtz said.
Among recent major marketing developments, increased buying online is providing opportunities for branding packaging and value-added products.
And the application of genetics and artificial intelligence will completely change the way the salmon industry operates over the next five years, he added
-- John Evans
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:35 am PDT
Vertical consolidation more likely
Widespread consolidation is unlikely in the salmon industry although this may happen among one or two companies, Camanchaca CEO Ricardo Garcia Holtz said.
While consolidation over the past decade has limited future potential for mergers at the same time, Garcia sees scope for vertical integration opportunities.
“There are still big pockets of the value chain that are not owned by us,” he said.
If you look at last 10 years there has been quite a lot of consolidation
-- John Evans
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:35 am PDT
End to vertical integration in salmon farming?
Traditional salmon farming companies in Norway are likely to move away from the trend of vertically integrating feed and other activities into their businesses, said Alf-Goran Knutsen, CEO of salmon farmer Kvaroy, taking a slightly different take on the issue than other panelists.
With limits on Norwegian salmon farmers' ability to grow production, he said, many are likely to invest in farming other species such as cod, land-based farming and technology, such as AI.
-- John Fiorillo
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:25 am PDT
Don’t expect a flood of land-based product
Atlantic Sapphire execs Johan Andreassen and Karl Oystein Oyehaug challenged the idea that full-cycle, land-based salmon farming will really have a huge market impact any time soon, largely because it is so difficult to produce this way.
“It’s taken us 10 years to get to where we are today,” said Oyehaugh. “The technology is not plug and play. And then there is financing, design, planning, building, and then once that is done you need to actually farm the fish.”
“It’s a mega-project,” added Andreassen, citing the constant monitoring and work a farm like theirs take.
“At lot of these proposed companies don’t know what they are getting their toes into.”
-- Rachel Mutter
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:20 am PDT
R&D needs to trickle across the value chain
DNB Head of Foods and Seafoods Anne Hvistendahl praised Skretting for its efforts on R&D in the feed sector, however fish farmers should push the development further.
“Salmon farming is a value chain and there is room for improvement,” Hvistendahl said.
-- Demi Korban
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:17 am PDT
Pressure from all sides driving sustainability
Sustainability is a continuous process with many things still to do, while it is not a question of whether or not companies are sustainability, said Camanchaca CEO Ricardo Garcia Holtz.
Pressure to improve sustainability comes from the market and the consumer for more sustainable food. Pressure also comes from investors and from society, which is the most important, he said.
“I haven’t seen one company that said it is not sustainable.”
-- John Evans
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:15 am PDT
Coming in high
Just days from putting its first US salmon on the market, Atlantic Sapphire has had “great feedback” on the product.
“People love the story – the sustainability, the traceability … we get a lot of traction from it being made in America,” said Atlantic Sapphire's Karl Oystein Oyehaug.
The company is set to get a very large price premium compared to traditional salmon, said Johan Andreassen. “It will be the freshest product on the market,” he said.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:10 am PDT
Reducing R&D not a route to better margins
Responding to DNB head of Foods and Seafoods Anne Hvistendahl, Therese Log Bergjord of Skretting made it clear that reducing R&D efforts would not be the route to releasing margin pressure.
Conceding that Skretting is not the expert on the consumer, Bergjord sees Skretting’s role in creating profitability and efficiency for any feed concept a producer wishes to use.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:05 am PDT
No. 1 in salmon portions
Camanchaca will become the number one Chilean exporter in salmon portions helped by the introduction of new technologies, CEO Ricardo Garcia said
Several developments are coming that will boost traditional salmon farmers, including sea lice treatments, genetic improvements to make fish more robust and artificial intelligence, he said.
-- John Evans
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:05 am PDT
Improving all the time in treating sea lice
The industry is doing a considerably better job of managing lice infestations than was being done 10 years ago, but there is still work to do, said Alf-Goran Knutsen, CEO of salmon farmer Kvaroy.
"Looking at where we were and where we are today, I think we have done a lot," he said.
And the future looks promising because of new technology developments being produced to fight sea lice.
-- John Fiorillo
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:00 am PDT
In search of the silver bullet
The feed industry has more than 1,000 different raw materials to choose from, all of which can be sustainable, said Skretting CEO Therese Log Bergjord.
However, novel ingredients are super interesting and create new opportunities in the sector.
“We have not discovered the silver bullet yet. I would like an ingredient that is sustainable and can be scaled up.”
-- Rachel Mutter
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:00 am PDT
Not into heavy metal
Atlantic Sapphire is looking to eliminate all marine ingredients in its feed because of concerns over heavy metals, said Johan Andreassen.
“Our aim is to go completely out of the oceans, on farming side, effluent side and feed ingredient side.”
-- Rachel Mutter
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:55 am PDT
Industry does not have to move away from marine ingredients in feed
While the industry should embrace alternative feed ingredietns, it doesn't have to move away for the use of marine ingredients, said Alf-Goran Knutsen, CEO of salmon farmer Kvaroy.
He said his company was cleaning the feed it uses of PCBs and other contaminants. It has also stepped up its use of feed using algal oil as an alternative feed ingredient.
-- John Fiorillo
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:50 am PDT
Alternative feed ingredients need to prove themselves
Camanchaca CEO Ricardo Garcia Holtz said alternative feed ingredients have more work to do to prove themselves themselves as cost effective
In the past five years there has been a substantial improvement in the sustainability of fisheries, he said.
-- John Evans
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:45 am PDT
We prefer proven technology
Lead time in salmon farming is too long, which is why for the current decade lenders will focus on conventional salmon farming, DNB head of Foods and Seafoods Anne Hvistendahl said.
There should be cost benefits before DNB opens financing to offshore, land-based and other emerging farming technologies.
The large part of financing for these projects at a first stage will be through equity, due to risk.
-- Demi Korban
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:40 am PDT
We need to farm better to meet demand
Alf-Goran Knutsen, CEO of salmon farmer Kvaroy told the audience at Wednesday's live salmon event that his company has focused on sustainability, fish welfare and ways it can farm better.
"That is the future," he said.
He also said he does not see land-based farming as a competitor, adding that all new ways of salmon production will be needed to meet increasing consumer demand.
-- John Fiorillo
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:35 am PDT
Technology is driving growth
Camanchaca CEO Ricardo Garcia Holtz said he is “quite convinced” that upgraded technology will continue to dominate in the coming years in natural conditions.
“We have plenty of room for growth with marginal investments,” he said.
While volume growth on coastal sites is limited COVID-19 may dictate which technologies are successful.
-- John Evans
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:30 am PDT
From foodservice to retail
One major trend we have seen in the aquaculture industry is the shift from foodservice to retail, which is benefitting the vertically integrated salmon farmers, DNB Head of Foods and Seafoods Anne Hvistendahl said.
Other trends that are up and coming are land-based salmon farming gaining momentum, offshore salmon farming and green financing.
-- Demi Korban
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:20 am PDT
IntraFish names 2020 Person of the Year
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:20 am PDT
What can be done?
One of the biggest tools to deal with this climate-changed fueled harmful algal blooms (HABs) is to have remote monitoring tools, said Jennie Korus, aquaculture scientist and a top researcher and organizer at InnovaSea.
The future of HABs will revolve around technology involving machine learning and algorithms.
The way we’re going to gain additional info about HABs, is going to come from data streams, she said.
These streams will provide the data needed for machine learning and algorithms. They’re already situated in several coastal regions to understanding bloom dynamics.
“Data these days is really powerful,” she said.
It will be hard to expand the industry if the salmon farming industry continues to experience such significant losses from HAB.
-- Rachel Sapin
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:15 am PDT
Climate change will continue to impact salmon farmers
Jennie Korus, aquaculture scientist and a top researcher and organizer at InnovaSea, kicked off the webinar with a discussion about harmful algal blooms (HABs), which have in past years devastated major salmon farms in British Columbia, Canada, in particular.
In 2018, aquaculture provided over 50 percent of the fish for human consumption, around 1 million metric tons, but HABs are causing major issues for farmers all over the world.
Under the correct set of conditions these naturally occurring phytoplankton can become blooms in the spring when temperatures are warmer. The problem is, during these blooms the algae completely deplete oxygen in an area.
Other species of phytoplankton produce neurotoxins that can severely impact fish health.
“The problem is all of our farms are situated in coastal regions, and that’s where these blooms normally occur,” she said.
Unfortunately, there are sometimes worst-case scenarios.
In 2016, a “Godzilla” HAB event occurred in the Patagonia region of Chile. The bloom led to the largest fish farm mortality that had ever been reported. The HAB created an $80 million loss and affected 100,000 metric tons of salmon and trout, she said.
Several factors contributed to this bloom, but one was exceptional El Nino weather conditions that year. The weather event brought much warmer water than normal to the Chilean coast.
Climate change also influenced the event, she said, by changing the regions Southern Annular Mode (SAM).
“These kinds of extreme events are mimicking future conditions,” she said, they are indicative of what farmers can expect in the future.
East Australia is currently experiencing similar salmon farming issues due to its red tide crises, she gave as one example.
Another example is the blob, which affected Alaska and BC. The giant blob of water, about 3 degrees warmer than normal, impacted fish species in those regions.
These kinds of impacts may intensify with climate change.
HABs are expected to increase in severity and frequency
-- Rachel Sapin
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Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:00 am PDT
A star-studded salmon panel
Camanchaca, DNB, Atlantic Sapphire, Innovasea. These are just some of the companies that will be represented in today's IntraFish's Seafood Leadership Series event.
Today's online event will bring together thought leaders to discuss the future of the sector in the many different guises it is now farmed, its markets, financing, people and more.
IntraFish Editor-in-Chief, Drew Cherry, will steer the experts -- including Camanchaca CEO Ricardo Garcia Holtz; Atlantic Sapphire Managing Director Karl Oystein Oyehaug and DNB Global Head of Seafood Anne Hvistendahl -- through exploring the most important themes of the industry's future:
- What are the most disruptive shifts currently impacting the sector?
- Land-based, offshore, sub-sea, net pen: which technology will rise about the others?
- What technologies hold the most promise for increasing efficiency?
- What key advances are making progress on fish health, biology and genetics?
- What markets hold the most promise for the sector?
- Where is consolidation most likely to occur?
- What other species might salmon farmers look to expand into?
- What does the salmon farming company of the future look like? Part of agri-business conglomerates? Vertically integrated giants?
We'll also be announcing our IntraFish Person of the Year.
