These executives think the world is ready for land-based farmed cod

A Norwegian aquaculture company and its backers are betting that the booming land-based aquaculture industry is ready for another species: cod.

Floro-based Havlandet Marin Yngel, backed by Norwegian industrial conglomerate the Inc Group, is planning to produce 10,000 metric tons a year of ready-to-process farmed cod raised in a land-based recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) to build on its already successful hatchery operations.

While cod farming in netpens never fully went away, the industry showed promise until the mid-2000s, when the sector collapsed amid rising wild cod quotas, production challenges and the global financial crisis, which led to bankruptcies and major losses, Havlandet Marin Yngel General Manager Halvard Hovland told IntraFish.