In 2014, the world’s 25 largest salmon producers accounted for 73.9 percent of the world’s total production of farmed salmon.
Marine Harvest was decidedly the biggest producer, followed by Leroy Seafood Group, SalMar, Cermaq and Cooke Aquaculture, according to the ranking in IntraFish’s new industry report on The World's Top Salmon Producers.
The report profiles the biggest producers, and reviews events in the past year that influenced the market Among the changes, production of Atlantic salmon increased 9 percent from 2014 and Russia closed its borders – but prices remained relatively stable.
While Norwegian producers achieved good financial results, it was another story for the Chilean producers, who had a challenging year.
In Norway, the government presented a new marine farming industry framework, which was eventually considered in parliament. The conclusion is that moderate growth can be anticipated for Norwegian production the next few years.
There was a lot activity on the transaction side.
Mitsubishi Corp. acquired Cermaq, Ewos took over Nova Austral, and Marine Harvest acquired Aquinova. A solution was also found for Invermar, which after a lot of back and forth was sold to fisheries company Alimar.
In 2015, Marine Harvest attempted to merge its Chilean activity together with AquaChile, but the agreement fell apart in “the eleventh hour."
SHV bought the feed company Nutreco, and thus won the battle against Cargill.
Later however, the US company appeared on the scene again, this time inking an agreement on the purchase of Ewos, less than two years after Ewos was sold from Cermaq to the private equity funds Altor and Bain Capital.
