9 minute read
Fish Farmer meets Norcod CEO Christian Riber
The third wave
Norcod’s CEO believes that the secret to successful cod farming has fi nally been cracked
BY ROBERT OUTRAM
In the race to restart Norway’s cod farming industry, Norcod is in pole posi� on. Following a trial harvest in December last year, the company is now gearing up for its fi rst commercial harvest this quarter.
Chief Execu� ve Chris� an Riber is confi dent. He says: “Our current produc� on is on target and the fi sh is doing well. We s� ll see very low mortality, good growth and good fi sh welfare. And just this week [speaking in June] we’ve started se� ng out the next round of fi sh into the ocean, which will become the next 10,000 tonnes for 2022.”
He describes the December trial as “a huge milestone” for the company, with the fi rst 2kg-plus fi sh and expecta� ons that the coming harvest will exceed the planned average of 4kg-4.5kg.
Even so, he says: “When we started back in 2018, a lot of people thought we were nuts!”
Cod aquaculture began with experimental hatcheries to revive wild stocks in the 1880s, but the fi rst wave of full scale commercial farming started a century later. It was not a roaring success – biological problems were challenging and profi ts low – and most closed during the 1980s.
The second wave came in the early 2000s, with farms established in Norway and elsewhere, but again biological problems – and the global fi nancial crisis – meant the industry was once more on the back burner.
Riber believes that solu� ons have now been found for both the biological and fi nancial challenges: “Now everyone is talking about cod farming in Norway and there are new companies coming into the market, which is very posi� ve.”
So what’s diff erent about the model now? One factor, says Riber, is the biology. As he puts it: “Back in 2012-13, they reached genera� on
three, and they felt they had cracked the biology at that � me, but then they got killed by the fi nancial crisis.
“Today we are se� ng out with genera� on six – it’s a totally domes� cated fi sh, it swims around in the pens similar to the salmon. As long as the cod is fed correctly and is kept with the right equipment, we see zero problems with cannibalism or escapes.”
He adds: “We’ve done it the hard way from the beginning, so we’ve invested in completely new equipment, new rings, new feed barges and new service boats, which gives us a lot of advantages.
“And we’ve chosen a strategy where we use feed with a very high marine content. We’ve seen very good results with that, in the Faroes, for salmon.
“So our fi sh has fantas� c growth and they are really strong, and fi sh welfare is really good. We see very low mortality.”
To develop the feed, Norcod worked with Danish-based aquafeed producer Aller Aqua, a company with a lot of experience working with halibut farmers in Norway and also with sea bass and sea bream.
Norwegian research ins� tute Nofi ma has been running a na� onal breeding programme for cod since 2003, and their stock was the basis for Norcod’s ini� al broodstock. For its commercial produc� on going forward, however, Norcod is working with Norwegian company Havlandet Marin Yngel for its gene� cs and breeding. Havlandet is the only commercial, privately owned breeder for cod, and Norcod is planning to construct a dedicated fry facility in Florø, in partnership with Havlandet.
Another key factor is the market. Riber notes that in the late 2000s cod was selling for 10 or 15 NOK per kilo, but now prices are up to as much as 50 NOK.
In fact, for Q1 of this year Norcod announced an income of NOK 11.8m (£1m) compared to NOK 6.3m (£546k) for the same period last year.
The pre-tax opera� ng profi t was NOK 1.5m (£130k) against a loss of NOK 16.7m (£1.4m) in Q1 2019.
Danish wealth management business Artha recently bought out the stake owned by seafood producer Is� ord Norway. Artha was already a major investor but the move, which took its stake to just under 33%, underlines its confi dence in the venture.
Riber says: “Now more than ever, consumers are very focused on how is the fi sh raised, how sustainable is it, what is the environmental impact?
“Our cod is checking all those boxes. We are very much focused on sustainability in our produc� on.”
In May, Norcod became the fi rst cod farmer to achieve the Global GAP Aquaculture standard. This covers the en� re produc� on chain from broodstock, seedlings and feed suppliers to farming, harves� ng and processing, se� ng out detailed requirements for legal compliance, employees’ occupa� onal health and safety, animal welfare, food safety and environmental and ecological care.
Now, the company is working towards cer� fi ca� on with the Aquaculture Stewardship Council. This will not be granted un� l Norcod has been through at least one full produc� on cycle, and Riber hopes to achieve cer� fi ca� on some � me in 2022.
Wild caught cod is a familiar product, but how is the farmed version diff erent? Riber says: “It’s the same species, but due to the feed it has a signifi cantly sweeter taste to it and it is very fi rm. It has less of the salt water, ocean taste and it is less watery.
“What’s interes� ng about the farmed cod is that we can get a much be� er average size so, while wild caught fi sh can be anywhere between
Left: Chris� an Riber Above: The farm at Jamnungen Below: Norcod’s product
half a kilo and 7kg, we have a much narrower size range. And it has a much more stable quality. We don’t use nets or hooks to catch the fi sh, so there is very li� le bruising or damage to the fi sh.”
As the farmed cod do not go all the way down to the sea bed they are also very unlikely to pick up nematode worms, which can be a problem for wild caught cod. The worms are harmless to humans when the fi sh is cooked, but are very off pu� ng when they turn up alive.
Stability of quality and supply are also advantages Norcod is keen to stress. Riber says: “Our customers are high end food service and retailers – none of them like to buy on spot markets, they like programmes, stability and fi xed prices. And that’s exactly what we can deliver to them.
“We can do it outside the usual fresh fi sh season. So, from May onwards there is very li� le fresh cod available on the market, especially in high, stable quality, and that’s the demand that we can meet.”
Norcod is working in partnership with Denmark’s Sirena Group, which markets a variety of seafood including wild caught white fi sh. Riber himself was formerly Commercial Director with Sirena before moving to head Norcod in December 2020.
The connec� on means that Norcod should be able to get its product to its key markets, both whole fi sh for processors and retailers in Europe – including Scandinavia, the UK and elsewhere in western Europe – and fi llets for retail and hospitality.
As Riber says: “A big thing that we’ve done from the beginning, which diff eren� ates us a li� le bit from the others, is that we’ve built Norcod based on produc� on and marke� ng together; we haven’t just focused on produc� on.
“We see our fi rst mover advantage in the market but even more so when it comes to loca� ons and licences, where we have a big advantage.”
Norway’s emerging cod farming industry is not currently governed by the kind of “traffi c light” system which governs salmon farming, but it’s not hard to see that if the profi tability of the model is proven, the government will start to licence it more stringently.
Currently, Norcod operates at Jamnungen in Frøya municipality and earlier this year it was granted permission for a further site at Meløy, Nordland county. The company’s strategy is to farm cod from the Trøndelag region in Mid-Norway and northwards along the coast.
One diff erence in the way cod farming licences are awarded is that they are fi xed to a par� cular loca� on rather than transferable. Cod are saltwater fi sh for the whole of their life cycle, so the issue of farm sites being too close to migratory routes between rivers and the sea is not a problem, but the loca� on s� ll has to have regard for the wellbeing of local wild cod.
Otherwise the requirements for a cod farm are fairly similar to those for salmon – strong, high energy currents are good, as well as stable water temperatures. Cod, perhaps surprisingly, do not need as great a depth of water – 30 metres is usually suffi cient. Also, while cod are subject to lice, like most fi sh, cod lice are nowhere near the problem that salmon lice present.
With no freshwater phase in the cod’s life cycle, produc� on is arguably simpler than for salmon farming, Riber argues.
The move to Norcod has involved quite a change for Riber himself, who is Danish but has long experience of working with Norwegian producers during his � me with Sirena.
He says: “The plan was I should go back and forth on a weekly basis – of course that hasn’t been possible in the current environment, but things are opening up now.
“There’s been a diff erence in going from a wild fi sh mindset to a farming mindset, that’s for sure, and it’s been an extremely interes� ng process, but I can use all my experience with Sirena.
“With the high quality of this product, it’s going to be extremely exci� ng to see how the market reacts to it! FF
Top: Cod from the trial harvest Above: Cod fi llets
